From bestselling author of the Shatter Me series and the National Book Award-nominated A Very Large Expanse of Sea, Tahereh Mafi, comes a stunning novel about love and loneliness, navigating dual-identity as a Muslim teenager in America, and reclaiming your right to joy.
It’s 2003. It’s been several months since the US officially declared war on Iraq, and the political world has evolved. Shadi, who wears hijab (a visible allegiance to Islam) keeps her head down. Hate crimes are spiking. Undercover FBI agents are infiltrating mosques and interrogating members of the congregation, and the local Muslim community is beginning to fracture. Shadi hears the fights after services, the arguments between families about what it means to be Muslim, about what they should be doing and saying as a community but she does not engage.
She’s too busy drowning in her own troubles to find the time to deal with bigots.
Shadi is named for joy, but she’s haunted by sorrow. Her brother is dead, her father is dying, her mother is falling apart, and her best friend has mysteriously dropped out of her life. And then, of course, there’s the small matter of her heart. It’s broken. Shadi has tried to navigate the remains of her quickly-shattering world by soldiering through, saying nothing, until finally, one day, everything changes.
She explodes.
Perfect for fans of the Shatter Me series as well as Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give and Nicola Yoon’s The Sun is Also A Star.
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The sunlight was heavy today; fingers of heat forming sweaty hands that braced my face, dared me to flinch.
ONE
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(@EMTeenFiction, 10 June 2021, paperback, 256 pages, copy from the publisher via @AmazonUK, #AmazonVine)
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I enjoyed another title from the author, A Very Large Expanse of Sea which I also got from Amazon Vine so I was looking forward to reading An Emotion of Great Delight. I thought this was a terrific book, set just after the US declares war on Iraq. The book explores how life becomes unsettled in the US for Muslims who finds themselves having to justify their existence and prove they deserve to be in the country they have always called home. The book tackles big issues and is uncomfortable to read at times. I found Shadi’s story incredibly sad as she has to cope with abuse and hatred while wondering why strangers blame her for 9/11, why her best friend has cut her out of her life and why she’s feel impassive about the possibility her father might die. This is a heart-breaking book.
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