Against the Loveless World ★★★★★

Against the Loveless World (Click Here To Buy)

★★★★★

Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa is a fiction book about the life of a Palestinian woman.

I read this book for @diversespines #spineofthemonth I checked this book out from the library and read it on my Kindle.

Nahr is a Palestinian refugee growing up in Kuwait. Her childhood is chronicled in the simple day to day witticisms of her family’s life. Nahr is constantly breaking and bending rules, challenging the way things are done. As a young woman she marries a freedom fighter only to have him abandon her. Wanting to make money to send her brother to college, Nahr meets Um Buraq, a woman in a similar situation, and begins working as a prostitute until Iraq invades Kuwait and the family must flee to Jordan. Later, Nahr returns to Palestine to obtain a divorce but falls in love with her husband’s brother, a resistance leader. Nahr joins him in a number of carefully executed attacks and ends up in an Israeli prison for many years, where she writes the book.

This book could be really heavy at times - the sexual abuse and torture were difficult to read. Despite her trauma, Nahr is a sassy, strong, and determined woman who falls passionately in love and fights for the justice of her people. I learned a lot about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and I think it was important to hear it told from this perspective.

If you liked Against the Loveless World, I also recommend Woman At Point Zero by Nawal El Saadawi, My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite, Circe by Madeline Miller, and The Color Purple by Alice Walker.

Happy Reading and Happy International Women’s Day!

- Ms.Bjork