Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
El-Wardany's entertaining debut follows the romantic relationships of three Muslim women living in London in the early 2010s. Ever since Kees, Malak, and Jenna met in weekend Islamic school, they've shared a tight friendship grounded in religion. Now in their 20s, the trio remain close and primarily date non-Muslim men, despite their families' expectations that they should marry within the faith. After Malak's white, agnostic boyfriend realizes Malak will never be able to tell her parents about their relationship, they break up. A heartbroken Malak then vindictively tells Kees that Kees's relationship with Harry, a white man, also won't last. Tempers flare and the fight creates a lasting rift. The three go their separate ways: Malak moves to Cairo, where she dates a seemingly perfect Muslim man; Kees gets a job as an attorney, but her relationship with Harry becomes increasingly strained; and Jenna represses her loneliness with reckless casual hookups. As the months pass and the trio's romantic lives become increasingly tumultuous, they come to recognize the value of the friendship they once shared. The complex characters are well observed and the prose is often moving: "Although the breakup was mutual, it was an unexpected specter, slipping quietly unnoticed through the door." Fresh, witty, and insightful, this is an auspicious start. Florence Rees, AM Heath Literary. (June)
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Review by Library Journal Review
DEBUT This coming-of-age novel by El-Wardany, an Egyptian Irish poet and BBC broadcaster, captures perfectly the uncertainty of life in one's mid-20s and how easy it is to become unmoored. Malak, Kees, and Jenna, British Muslim women who've been friends since childhood, are graduating from university and excited to embark on the rest of their lives, secure in their friendship. Then a fight between Malak and Kees tears the women apart, devastating all three. Malak, still hurting from the recent break-up of a long-term romantic relationship, decides that a fresh start in Cairo is just what she needs. Kees, worried that her relationship with her boyfriend will suffer the same fate, throws herself into her work. Meanwhile, Jenna spends more time dating and partying, until one horrible night changes everything for her. As the women navigate a harsh world, they come to realize how much they need each other. VERDICT El-Wardany's highly recommended debut sensitively handles rape, domestic abuse, and the pressure of familial obligation. The book's particular strength is in its treatment of the women's Islamic faith as each grapples with what it means to be devout. There are no easy answers here, and readers will be thinking about Malak, Kees, and Jenna long after they close the book.--Lynnanne Pearson
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
El-Wardany's sparkling, incisive debut uses the conventions of romantic comedy to explore the social and personal tensions faced by young Muslim women in contemporary Britain. In London in the early 2000s, three lifelong friends are about to graduate from university and have to make decisions about their professional and--more importantly, from this novel's point of view--personal lives. Jenna, a medical student from a British Palestinian family, juggles boyfriends with an eye on finally marrying an appropriate Muslim until an assault leaves her depressed and willing to settle for someone she doesn't truly love. Malak, whose family is Egyptian and who doesn't know exactly what she wants to do with her life, loves Jacob but breaks up with him because he isn't Muslim and she knows her family will never approve. When she moves temporarily to Egypt, she meets Ali, a British Muslim who seems perfect at first but later reveals a cruel side. Bilquis, known as Kees, whose family is Pakistani and who's in love with Catholic Harry, makes the opposite decision: She decides to stay with him and is shunned by her family. The choices Malak and Kees make lead to their estrangement, with Jenna caught in the middle until a crisis reunites the three. While the novel's male characters aren't as well developed, often being either too good or evil to be believable, the three young women and their family members are complex and engaging, while the decisions they make, and often reconsider, are rooted in realistic cultural and emotional pressures. While frothy and chatty, with witty dialogue and plenty of weddings and other gatherings that spark interactions among the characters, the book doesn't shy away from more serious issues, including rape, domestic violence, and unwanted pregnancy. This novel is blessed by a light touch and evenhanded treatment of its two generations of characters. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
