Against the Loveless World
SynopsisPlot
As Nahr sits, locked away in solitary confinement, she spends her days reflecting on the dramatic events that landed her in prison in a country she barely knows. Born in Kuwait in the 70s to Palestinian refugees, she dreamed of falling in love with the perfect man, raising children, and possibly opening her own beauty salon. Instead, the man she thinks she loves jilts her after a brief marriage, her family teeters on the brink of poverty, she’s forced to prostitute herself, and the US invasion of Iraq makes her a refugee, as her parents had been. After trekking through another temporary home in Jordan, she lands in Palestine, where she finally makes a home, falls in love, and her destiny unfolds under Israeli occupation. Nahr’s subversive humor and moral ambiguity will resonate with fans of My Sister, The Serial Killer, and her dark, contemporary struggle places her as the perfect sister to Carmen Maria Machado’s Her Body and Other Parties.
Story
About this book
Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa unfolds as a reflection from solitary confinement. Nahr, a Palestinian woman, revisits the events that ended with her imprisoned in a state she hardly recognizes as home. Born in Kuwait in the 1970s to refugee parents, she once hoped for love, children, and maybe a small beauty salon.
Those plans collapse. A short marriage ends when the man she believes she loves leaves her, her family drifts toward poverty, and she is pushed into prostitution to survive. The United States invasion of Iraq displaces her once more, repeating the refugee status her parents carried. Jordan becomes another temporary address before she reaches Palestine, settles, and falls in love under Israeli occupation.
Abulhawa gives Nahr sharp, subversive humor and a morally ambiguous view of her own choices instead of a straightforward account of victimhood. The novel won a 2020 Palestine Book Award and was a finalist for the 2021 Aspen Words Literary Prize, and The New York Times described it as beautiful and urgent.
