Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Biography, Literature & Literary studies

A WOMAN IS NO MAN

Etaf Rum

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.

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 naïve 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.

Etaf Rum was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY by Palestinian immigrants and is the eldest of nine children. Currently, she teaches college English and Literature in North Carolina. She has a Masters of Arts in American and British Literature as well as undergraduate degrees in Philosophy and English Composition. She also runs the Instagram account @booksandbeans, which recently hit 160,000 followers. In addition to partnering with publishers to feature new work, she is also a Book of the Month Club Ambassador, showcasing her favorite selections each month.

Available products
Book Published 2019-03-05 by HarperCollins
Book Published 2019-03-05 by HarperCollins

Comments

A WOMAN IS NO MAN is New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice ; Washington Post 10 Books to Read in March ; Marie Claire Best Women's Fiction of 2019 ; Washington Book Review Difficult-To-Put-Down Novel ; A Refinery 29 Best Books of the Month ; An Electric Lit 20 Best Debuts of the First Half of 2019 ; The Millions Most Anticipated Books of 2019 ; A USA Today Best Book of the Week ; A February Target Diverse Book Club Pick! ; A February Indie Next List Now in Paperback Pick!

A Woman Is No Man, bold as a drumbeat, banishes the repressive silence that haunts Isra and her spirited daughter, Deya. This tender tale of women soldiering through a barbed world is a clarion call and a work of literary bravery.

First-time novelist Rum's setting...is rare: a Brooklyn Palestinian enclave in which reputation matters above all else... The daughter of Brooklyn Palestinian immigrants, Rum was often told 'a woman is no man.' Overcoming her fear of community reprisal, she alchemizes that limiting warning into a celebration of 'the strength and power of our women.'

A blistering exploration of three generations of Palestinian-American women, unfolding in lyrical but demanding prose.

A dauntless exploration of the pathology of silence, an attempt to unsnarl the dark knot of history, culture, fear and trauma that can render conservative Arab-American women so visibly invisible... The triumph of Rum's novel is that she refuses to measure her women against anything but their own hearts and histories.

Saudi Arabia (Page Seven); Brazil (Primavera); China (China South Booky); Estonia (Rahva Raamat); France (L'Observatoire); Greece (Iviskos); Hungary (Könyvmolykepzo); Italy (Piemme); Norway (Verbena); Poland (Editio/Helion); Russia (Sindbad); Slovenia (Eno); Turkey (Ithaki); Vietnam (I Love Books/AZ Group)

Well-developed characters and a wonderfully paced narrative[...] Highly recommended.

Etaf Rum's A Woman Is No Man is a shattering, revelatory tale of immigration, womanhood, and the cyclical impact of violence and oppression. In her unflinching story of both loss and hope, strewn with enthralling, vibrant characters, Rum has accomplished the extraordinary: a tale that bridges the domestic and the global, memory and future, the old world and the new. A spectacular debut.

A WOMAN IS NO MAN is a New York Times Bestseller!

Sometimes heroism is loud and dramatic. Other times, it is daring to listen to that quiet voice within and have the courage to follow it. In this story, we see inside the lives of three generations of Palestinian women living in America, struggling and suffering to hear that voice. Etaf Rum has done a great service by sharing these voices with us.

Garnering justified comparisons to Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns... Etaf Rum's debut novel is a must-read about women mustering up the bravery to follow their inner voice.

I couldn't put it down. I was obsessed with figuring out the mystery of this family.

A richly detailed and emotionally charged debut.

What is a woman's life worth? This question echoes across countries and generations through Etaf Rum's intense debut novel... The narrative draws links between economic desperation and discord in the home [and] also touches on the legacy of violence passed down from the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories... A Woman Is No Man complicates and deepens the Arab American story - a tale as rich and varied as America itself.

A gripping portrait of three generations of Palestinian women whose narratives are heartfelt and unsettling. Rum writes with tender sensibility, creating characters with layers of complexity and depth. She gives these women what they most desire and deserve: a voice.