Reader be warned, this book will break your heart and you will be angry, sad, in pain- unbearable pain that anyone seeing you weeping while holding such a colorful book will think you are going through it. They are very right, from the first page- you go through it. From Palestine in 1990, to Brooklyn in 2008- three generations of women who have given everything only to receive silence, beatings, erased by the men whom they hail as their protectors.

“Where I come from, voicelessness is the condition of my gender, as normal as the bosoms on a woman’s chest, as necessary as the next generation growing inside her belly.

I should have walked away when I saw: Palestine, Women and Immigration- bolding staring at me, but I read Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, A Little Life– those three books destroyed me, making me weep and cry at every turn my latest stint was meeting a guy named Jude at a workshop and I couldn’t help but think of Jude in A Little Life.

The novel alternates between the lives of Isra, a Palestinian immigrant, and her daughter Deya, who grows up in Brooklyn. Isra is married off at a young age to Adam, a Palestinian-American, and moves to New York with dreams of love and happiness. However, she quickly finds herself trapped in a life of domesticity, facing the oppressive expectations of her mother-in-law, Fareeda, and the harsh realities of her marriage, which becomes increasingly abusive as she bears daughters instead of the desired sons.

“Where I come from, we’ve learned to conceal our condition. We’ve been taught to silence ourselves, that our silence will save us.

I have so many questions, why did Fareeda let her daughters-in-law suffer abuse? How much did it take Isra, Fareeda and Sarah to look the other way, head bowed as they were insulted by the men in their life? What is wrong with having girls? How much value do sons bring to their families- and if Adam is anything as an example, why did they work him, grind him to the floor of depression with family responsibility?

I got to know that this was the author’s debut book and trust me, if Etaf Rum comes across this post I just want to ask, how many pages of her manuscript were soaked in tears as she wrote this.

My next read is non-fiction- I wonder what are you reading this week?