when we were sisters a novel fatimah asghar

Practicing how small we can be…I can become the air. Says Kausar of this tactic: “We’re all shrinking into ourselves. Throughout the novel-as the siblings are spoken over, ignored, abused, neglected, and coerced to lie to protect adults-they harrowingly adapt to each scenario by taking up less space at their own expense. The politics of space are beautifully explored: those who are gobbling up more (Uncle, random roommates he has saddled the girls with, and the girls’ romantic interests) contrast with the three shrinking, caged sisters. One World, hardcover, 352 pp., $27 Īs they are shuffled from one depressing apartment to the next, Uncle and other unsavory characters encroach upon the sisters’ spiritual, emotional, and physical well-being. In the interim, her character never stops clawing for connection and self-discovery. When we meet her, immediately following the death of her only remaining parent, she is four years old and surrounded by a sea of wailing Aunties-grief vampires whose faces all “blend together, until they become a soup of Aunties.” When we leave her, she is 27 with distant lovers who “mess in dreams into a soup of faces.” The story both begins and ends in the murky waters of the human condition. The story follows a trio of orphaned sisters and is (mostly) narrated by the youngest, Kausar.

The book in question, When We Were Sisters by Fatimah Asghar, is the debut novel from Chicago’s beloved multi-hyphenate creative. Thank you for breaking silence, and allowing so many others to do the same.” The recognition reads: “Thank you to Carmen Maria Machado for In the Dream House. It is in the epigraph of a recent read: Carmen Maria Machado’s memoir In the Dream House, a title which also appeared in the acknowledgments of the book at hand today. “If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.” -Zora Neale Hurston

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If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a review.Get your Best of Chicago tickets! Ticket prices go up May 15 > Close When We Were Sisters by Fatimah Asghar was published by One World. I recently spoke with Fatimah Asghar about their debut novel. The novel explores the interlocking ties between three Muslim American sisters who, after their parents die, are left to raise one another in a country whose systems were not designed to protect them.Īlthough the novel is just being released today, October 18th, it’s already been longlisted for the National Book Award and the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. It’s this last descriptor which is least surprising, as the story told through their debut novel, When We Were Sisters is lyrical, experimental, and quite moving.

When we were sisters a novel fatimah asghar