“Fareeda knew that no matter what any woman said, culture could not be escaped. Even if it meant tragedy. Even if it meant death. At least she was able to recognize her role in their culture, own up to it, instead of sitting around saying ‘If only I had done things differently.’ It took more than one woman to do things differently. It took a world of them.”

Wow—this is a story that clearly has been in the making for generations. Etaf Rum takes care to create characters operating in a layered cycle of abuse that begins with unspeakable violence towards the Palestinian people, continues as immigrants of their disapora encounter injustices in America, and becomes more intimate as men translate this socioeconomic injustice into domestic abuse against their wives (and families.) Most heartbreakingly, Rum shows how this cycle often culminates with mothers who are too dislocated from all this trauma to help their kids carve out the possibility for healthier lives.

This is the challenge we see in this novel, as mothers, grandmothers, and aunts seek to help a new generation of young women in their family "break the wheel", or at least slow it down. The central challenge is that these elders have limited tools to lead them on a different path, and limited assurance of just which new direction will result in a definitively better outcome. It stings, but feels entirely accurate, that there are no right answers for the women here—just less deadly ones, with different forms of isolation from one's society or subculture.

In summary: this is one of the bravest debut novels I've read, and Rum should be incredibly proud of her life, on and off the page. I'm sure it is invaluable to so many women in similar situations.