Publishers Weekly
03/30/2020
Koya’s accomplished debut examines Indian-American identity and bigotry against a Muslim family after 9/11. In 2005, newly arrived in Washington, D.C., to start postdoc research on wild silk moths, Amina Abdul tries to help her brother Mohammed deal with his imploding marriage. Meanwhile, her 11-year-old nephew, Omar, elicits scrutiny after bringing Amina’s decorative Indian knife to show his classmates (“In these times, a Muslim child brings a knife to school—we can’t just not report it,” the principal says to Amina, explaining why she called the police). After Omar watches al-Qaeda videos online, the family’s ISP reports his activity to the police, who arrest Mohammed and briefly detain him . Meanwhile, Amina faces sexism in the workplace as her lab work is overlooked. Further complicating things is Amina’s romance with a coworker’s brother, whom she is unwilling to tell about a job offer in India. As Amina considers the move, she continues to worry about Mohammed and Omar, who both self-destruct in their own ways as they struggle to find their place and navigate their identity. Koya writes sharply about what it means to be South Asian in the U.S. after 9/11, and skillfully weaves the family members’ conflicts and predicaments. This is a mature, fully realized effort. (May)
From the Publisher
Ramiza Shamoun Koya’s The Royal Abduls is filled with wonderfully flawed, yet deeply sympathetic characters who occupy utterly convincing and beautifully drawn narrative and emotional situations. Is independence freedom or isolation? How can we balance our own needs with those of our loved ones? How can we both protect ourselves and connect with others? Koya’s novel reminds us that the answers to these questions are, of course, both deeply personal and deeply political, and in answering them, Koya performs the marvelous alchemy of dropping us into a story world that dismantles and then reassembles our sense of who we are.”
—Karen Shepard, author of The Celestials
“The Royal Abduls is a novel for our times. It is a novel of struggle and a reminder of the hope that we once felt and that, hopefully, we will feel again soon.”
—Carol Zoref, author of Barren Island
“Koya has crafted a tender-hearted story with a sharp knife edge. She's cut to the heart of the devastating effects of colonialism and white supremacy on multi-generational American immigrant families.”
—Jenny Forrester, author of Narrow River, Wide Sky
"After reading Ramiza Shamoun Koya's warm and wise debut novel, you will not soon forget the Abdul family, especially the tenderness between Amina and her young nephew, Omar, as both struggle to find happiness amid family turmoil and hostility towards Muslims in post-9/11 America. Koya imbues each page of The Royal Abduls with lessons of the heart and what it means to save yourself while protecting the ones you love."
—Mo Daviau, author of Every Anxious Wave
“A beautiful and messy family story set in the tumultuous post 9/11 world of Washington, DC, The Royal Abduls digs deep into the hearts of a small boy and his academic auntie as they struggle to define themselves and stay connected to the ones they love. It’s a story of an immigrant experience of our times, full of hope and tender human wisdom.”
—Joanna Rose, author of A Small Crowd of Strangers
“The Royal Abduls is a propulsive and absorbing story of the tensions that reside between career and love, personal desires and family expectations. Upping the power of this book, Ramiza Shamoun Koya deftly reveals how these tensions are made more complicated by political, cultural and social forces. Especially unique in this story is the complex and beautifully drawn relationship between the two point of view characters: a childless aunt and her adolescent nephew. We need more stories like this.”
—Jackie Shannon Hollis, author of This Particular Happiness: A Childless Love Story
JULY 2020 - AudioFile
Narrators Soneela Nankani and Neil Shah work together to create this multigenerational portrait of an Indian family in post-9/11 America. Nankani is masterful as she cycles through several female characters who range from Amina, an up-and-coming evolutionary biologist, to Amina’s white sister-in-law. Nankani takes us tenderly into Amina's interior thoughts, garnering sympathy as she combats misogyny in the workplace. Shah is much more contemplative as the teenage Omar, Amina's nephew, who struggles with balancing the two sides of his identity. Listeners are treated to a wide cast of characters and their myriad struggles as Muslim Americans in a polarized country. This is a rich listening experience for those who are fans of contemporary multicultural fiction. M.R. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
