Three generations of Palestinian American women living in Brooklyn are torn between individual desire and the strict mores of Arab culture in this powerful debut-a heart-wrenching story of love, intrigue, courage, and betrayal that will resonate with women from all backgrounds, giving voice to the silenced and agency to the oppressed.
"Where I come from, we've learned to silence ourselves. We've been taught that silence will save us. Where I come from, we keep these stories to ourselves. To tell them to the outside world is unheard of-dangerous, the ultimate shame."
Palestine, 1990. Seventeen-year-old Isra prefers reading books to entertaining the suitors her father has chosen for her. Over the course of a week, the naive and dreamy girl finds herself quickly betrothed and married, and is soon living in Brooklyn. There Isra struggles to adapt to the expectations of her oppressive mother-in-law Fareeda and strange new husband Adam, a pressure that intensifies as she begins to have children-four daughters instead of the sons Fareeda tells Isra she must bear.
Brooklyn, 2008. Eighteen-year-old Deya, Isra's oldest daughter, must meet with potential husbands at her grandmother Fareeda's insistence, though her only desire is to go to college. Deya can't help but wonder if her options would have been different had her parents survived the car crash that killed them when Deya was only eight. But her grandmother is firm on the matter: the only way to secure a worthy future for Deya is through marriage to the right man.
But fate has a will of its own, and soon Deya will find herself on an unexpected path that leads her to shocking truths about her family-knowledge that will force her to question everything she thought she knew about her parents, the past, and her own future.
Set in an America at once foreign to many and staggeringly close at hand, A Woman Is No Man is a story of culture and honor, secrets and betrayals, love and violence. It is an intimate glimpse into a controlling and closed cultural world, and a universal tale about family and the ways silence and shame can destroy those we have sworn to protect.
Ariana Delawari, an Earphones Award-winning narrator, is a musician, director, and actress. A graduate of the USC School of Cinematic Arts, she directed We Came Home, an award-winning documentary about her journeys to Afghanistan since 9/11, the making of her album "Lion of Panjshir," and her family story. She recently became the first female of Afghan descent to perform rock music live in Afghanistan in over thirty years. She is also a member of the LA Ladies Choir and was recently a speaker and performer at the inaugural TEDx Kabul.
Susan Nezami is an audiobook narrator whose readings include The Idealist by Nina Munk, among others.
Etaf Rum was born and raised in Brooklyn by Palestinian immigrants. She teaches college English literature in North Carolina, where she lives with her two children. She also runs the Instagram account @booksandbeans. A Woman Is No Man is her first novel.
One of the reasons we love to read fiction is finding ways to connect with other people’s experiences. Here are some books you should should add to your TBR, from coming-of-age narratives to fantasy and magic, from family sagas to fresh takes on immigrant tales — written by Arab American writers that speak to the […]
