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A review by saucy_bookdragon
Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
"But I know now that going from place to place is just something exiles have to do. Whatever the reason, the earth is never steady beneath our feet."
Against the Loveless World is a very thematically charged novel. Following the life of a Palestinian woman named Nahr, she is continuously upheaved by political turmoil leading to her making home in various places including Kuwait, Jordan, and Palestine, eventually landing her in an Israeli prison where she writes her story. Along the way the book discusses a very large variety of topics related to the region, including but not limited to genocide, colonialism, and feminism. It's a fiction novel that reflects the reality for many Palestinians.
The prose was absolutely gorgeous, flowing smoothly and lyrically, immediately transporting the reader into the story. It's pretty episodic and I liked some sections more than others, in particular the one where she was a prostitute and the one where she was actively rebelling against Israel I found the most interesting and poignant. I do wish that the book had lingered more on some aspects as at times it felt as if it was mentioning themes and topics without fleshing them fully out. I also found Nahr to be somewhat distant from the reader, she was often pretty passive and I never felt I really knew what were her personal beliefs and motives. The sections I mentioned enjoying the most where the ones Nahr and the themes were the most fully realized.
There's a lot to unpack and think about with this book and it's a good reminder for me that I still have a lot to learn about Middle Eastern history. It's a thematically rich story about someone marginalized by both her ethnicity and gender, left wayward in a world torn apart by violence.
Against the Loveless World is a very thematically charged novel. Following the life of a Palestinian woman named Nahr, she is continuously upheaved by political turmoil leading to her making home in various places including Kuwait, Jordan, and Palestine, eventually landing her in an Israeli prison where she writes her story. Along the way the book discusses a very large variety of topics related to the region, including but not limited to genocide, colonialism, and feminism. It's a fiction novel that reflects the reality for many Palestinians.
The prose was absolutely gorgeous, flowing smoothly and lyrically, immediately transporting the reader into the story. It's pretty episodic and I liked some sections more than others, in particular the one where she was a prostitute and the one where she was actively rebelling against Israel I found the most interesting and poignant. I do wish that the book had lingered more on some aspects as at times it felt as if it was mentioning themes and topics without fleshing them fully out. I also found Nahr to be somewhat distant from the reader, she was often pretty passive and I never felt I really knew what were her personal beliefs and motives. The sections I mentioned enjoying the most where the ones Nahr and the themes were the most fully realized.
There's a lot to unpack and think about with this book and it's a good reminder for me that I still have a lot to learn about Middle Eastern history. It's a thematically rich story about someone marginalized by both her ethnicity and gender, left wayward in a world torn apart by violence.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Genocide, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Islamophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Murder, and Colonisation
Moderate: Antisemitism