A Woman is No Man

A New York Times bestseller • A Washington Post 10 Books to Read in March • One of Cosmopolitan’s Best Books by POC for 2019 • A Refinery 29 Best Book of the Month ‘A gripping book. It's beautiful and very sad … The feelings are intense, and raw … It's a necessary story, brilliantly told’ Reader review, ‘Etaf I cannot express my gratitude, love and respect for you enough for A Woman is NO Man' Reader review, ‘Loved this book. Educational, emotive, sad, how many adjectives can I use. Highly recommended’ Reader review, ‘This book is just amazing, an eye opener on the lives and struggles of so many people. A world unknown to many of us … A ‘must read’ that I will certainly re-read’ Reader review, * * * * Three generations of Palestinian-American women living in Brooklyn are torn between individual desire and the strict mores of Arab culture in this heart-wrenching story of love, intrigue and courage. 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. 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… 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 honour, 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. * * * Praise for Etaf Rum ‘A love letter to storytelling’ New York Times ‘A nuanced look at the power of shame to shatter lives and send shards of pain hurtling down the generations … brilliant’ Big Issue ‘Enthralling’ Image magazine

A New York Times bestseller • A Washington Post 10 Books to Read in March • One of Cosmopolitan’s Best Books by POC for 2019 • A Refinery 29 Best Book of the Month ‘A gripping book. It's beautiful and very sad … The feelings are intense, and raw … It's a necessary story, brilliantly told’ Reader review, ‘Etaf I cannot express my gratitude, love and respect for you enough for A Woman is NO Man' Reader review, ‘Loved this book. Educational, emotive, sad, how many adjectives can I use. Highly recommended’ Reader review, ‘This book is just amazing, an eye opener on the lives and struggles of so many people. A world unknown to many of us … A ‘must read’ that I will certainly re-read’ Reader review, * * * * Three generations of Palestinian-American women living in Brooklyn are torn between individual desire and the strict mores of Arab culture in this heart-wrenching story of love, intrigue and courage. 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. 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… 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 honour, 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. * * * Praise for Etaf Rum ‘A love letter to storytelling’ New York Times ‘A nuanced look at the power of shame to shatter lives and send shards of pain hurtling down the generations … brilliant’ Big Issue ‘Enthralling’ Image magazine

A Goodreads Choice Awards Finalist for Best Fiction and Best Debut - BookBrowse's Best Book of the Year - A Marie Claire Best Women's Fiction of the Year - A Real Simple Best Book of the Year - A PopSugar Best Book of the Year All Written By Females - A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice - A Washington Post 10 Books to Read in March - A Newsweek Best Book of the Summer - A USA Today Best Book of the Week - A Washington Book Review Difficult-To-Put-Down Novel - A Refinery 29 Best Books of the Month - A Buzzfeed News 4 Books We Couldn't Put Down Last Month - A New Arab Best Books by Arab Authors - An Electric Lit 20 Best Debuts of the First Half of 2019 - A The Millions Most Anticipated Books of 2019 "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." -- Refinery 29 The New York Times bestseller and Read with Jenna TODAY SHOW Book Club pick telling the story of three generations of Palestinian-American women struggling to express their individual desires within the confines of their Arab culture in the wake of shocking intimate violence in their community. "Where I come from, we've learned to silence ourselves. We've been taught that silence will save us. Where I come from, we keep these stories to ourselves. To tell them to the outside world is unheard of -- dangerous, the ultimate shame." 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 na?ve 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.