Published in 2020, this book features a Palestinian family in Chicago. It opens in current day with a conversation between Afaf, the main character and principal of the Nurrideen School for girls and a parent questioning The Great Gatsby, a book the parent believes will interfere with her daughter becoming a proper Muslimah. After reassuring this parent (and hundreds before her) of classic literature’s merit, Afaf walks the school corridors and stops to pray in an old confessional left from the school’s former time as a convent. 

Mid prayer, shots ring out. 

The story then unfolds going back and forth in time from the horror of hearing the gun violence and encountering the shooter to Afaf’s early life at home with her family, adolescent struggles, marriage, career, and ultimately to her current position as principal. 

The majority of the story focuses on Afaf’s early and difficult years after her older sister ran away, a loss from which their mother never recovered. Her dad turned to drinking but eventually to solace in religion, a transition Afaf made as well. One that her mother and brother sneered at. 

This was an okay story. I didn’t love it but it certainly brought to light the endless prejudice against Muslims, especially after 9/11 and especially for women wearing a hijab, which Afaf elects to do. It also reveals the struggles of tradition vs modernity, of rejection vs assimilation, and of religion vs secularism within a single family. 

Definitely important issues, but as a novel, not all issues or characters were fleshed out as well as they could have been.