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Title details for Between Two Moons by Aisha Abdel Gawad - Available

Between Two Moons

A Novel

by Aisha Abdel Gawad
Suehyla El-Attar Young
Audiobook
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LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 CAROL SHIELDS PRIZE, THE NEW AMERICAN VOICES AWARD, & THE BROOKYLN PUBLIC LIBRARY PRIZE • Set in the Arab immigrant enclave of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, following three siblings coming of age over the course of one Ramadan, "a moving look at family, survival, and celebration" (Hanif Abdurraqib, author of A Little Devil in America).
"Breathtaking.” —New York Times Book Review
"A gorgeously written and profoundly intimate debut." —Etaf Rum, author of New York Times bestseller A Woman Is No Man
It’s the holy month of Ramadan, and twin sisters Amira and Lina are about to graduate high school in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. On the precipice of adulthood, they plan to embark on a summer of teenage revelry, trying on new identities and testing the limits of what they can get away with while still under their parents’ roof. But the twins' expectations of a summer of freedom collide with their older brother's return from prison, whose mysterious behavior threatens to undo the delicate family balance.
Meanwhile, outside the family’s apartment, a storm is brewing in Bay Ridge. A raid on a local business sparks a protest that brings the Arab community together, and a senseless act of violence threatens to tear them apart. Everyone’s motives are called into question as an alarming sense of disquiet pervades the neighborhood. With everything spiraling out of control, how will Amira and Lina know who they can trust?
A gorgeously written, intimate family story and a polyphonic portrait of life under the specter of Islamophobia, Between Two Moons challenges the reader to interrogate their own assumptions, asking questions of allegiance to faith, family, and community, and what it means to be a young Muslim in America.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 6, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593740682
      • File size: 333527 KB
      • Duration: 11:34:50

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from April 10, 2023
      A young Muslim woman comes of age in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, during a period of heightened anti-Arab prejudice in Gawad’s astonishing debut. The story unspools in 2014 on the cusp of Ramadan, as college-bound 17-year-old Amira Emam contends with a series of ruptures in her family life. Her “party girl” twin sister, Lina, frequents a local nightclub with her boyfriend and often calls Amira in the middle of the night for rides home from, among other spots, a seedy motel in New Jersey. The twins’ older brother, Sami, meanwhile, returns after a six-year prison sentence for a drug-related conviction, and she worries his return will affect the family’s equilibrium. After a police raid on a local café, the neighborhood wonders why its proprietor, Abu Jamal, was arrested, and tensions intensify when a mosque is vandalized and an 80-year-old imam is attacked. Then Sami begins meeting with various Muslim community members, and his reasons for doing so lead to a surprising twist. At a protest against Jamal’s detention, Amira meets Faraj, a college student and fellow Muslim, and she keeps their budding relationship hidden, feeling caught between her siblings, the “two moons” of the title. When the nature of Sami’s rendezvous is revealed, the fractured family becomes closer. The author does a knockout job developing the characters, and is especially convincing in conveying Amira’s conflicted feelings about Sami’s return and sketching the contours of the close-knit neighborhood (“The approaching dawn spread like a great massive bruise over New York”). This is a winner. Agent: Claudia Ballard, WME.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Suehyla El-Attar Young is the perfect energetic narrator for this novel about Muslim sisters who are about to enter "the real world" after graduating from high school. Young contrasts the youth, enthusiasm, and idealism of twins Amira and Lina with the attitudes of their troubled older brother. The girls get a big shot of adulthood all at once when members of the Arab community in their Brooklyn neighborhood are targeted. Young conveys the confusion and conflicts in a believable style that reflects the age of the characters. Her delivery underscores all that is at risk for the young women at a pivotal moment in their lives and community. M.R. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      June 10, 2024

      Egyptian American twin sisters Amira and Lina are graduating from high school and looking forward to their summer, during which they hope to test the limits of parental control in their largely Arab American community in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. The sisters are quite different from each other. Vivacious Lina is reckless and has a boyfriend, while Amira is reserved and has never been on a date. Living in their close-knit community presents difficulties, as religious obligations alternate with wild nights out on the town. Meanwhile, the twins' longed-for summer comes to a halt when their troubled brother Sami is unexpectedly released from prison. Sami's struggles, combined with a rash of hate crimes, police surveillance, and inside informants, make everyday life almost impossible. Pushcart Prize winner Gawad captures the anger and frustration of a community viewed with suspicion by outsiders and constrained by religious and cultural expectations. Suehyla El-Attar Young narrates skillfully, using accents and linguistic nuances as appropriate and perfectly conveying the balance of tension and youth. VERDICT Gawad's powerful debut novel is a complex story of love, prejudice, and coming of age. Listeners won't want to miss it.--Joanna M. Burkhardt

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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