They brought out brown bag after brown bag bunched in the bottom, and with disgusted faces and white gloves they peered in each one.

“What was in them?” Huda asks.

“All of my lunches from the past month. Including a really rotten banana and a sandwich that basically looked like a bag of mold.”

“Amar, that is so disgusting.” Huda sits back in her seat, shakes her head.

Maybe it had been the wrong story to share with them.

“You are so embarrassing,” Hadia says, but she is laughing. Then they both are. And soon he is laughing too.

I never expected to choose a debut novel written by a 26-year-old as the book from the US since there are so many renowned authors that I love. Then I read A Place For Us, and I knew it was it. This was the book I wanted to write about (Thanks Ange, for letting me have this 😊).

Mirza’s debut novel is a brilliant story about an Indian-American Muslim family in California. The book starts when Amar, whom no one has seen for more than three years, shows up at the wedding of his eldest sister, Hadia. The family is excited to have him there, but everyone is cautious, knowing that any wrong step could send him away again. Gradually, the author unveils the events that led to Amar abandoning his home and family.

This book deals largely with the collision of American and Islamic values, and with the struggle of the family to adapt to a new culture while maintaining its own traditions. However, it is much more than that. A Place For Us let us see how our lives are deeply affected by the means our parents had to raise us; how we cope with family expectations and what we are willing to do to belong. It’s a book about the importance of feeling loved and accepted but also about the difficulties of loving and accepting unconditionally.

As for the story itself, Mirza’s writing style is a mixture of two worlds. The prose is very unpretentious/less-is-more – in line with the American school-, while the storytelling is effortlessly breathtaking; a characteristic that I’ve found in most of the Muslim writers I’ve read and like to attribute to the lyrical nature of the Quran (note: this is a very personal belief). The narrator is not omniscient, Mirza just gives it the power to infiltrate certain memories of the characters which makes the book very intimate. Throughout the book, she takes some risks with the narrative, but in a very natural way, as if she had written tens of books; it is not an experiment, it is her unique way of telling a story.

What makes this book so memorable and what I kept wondering while I was reading it, was how someone so young could have such a deep understanding of religion, faith, marriage, family and love? Mirza writes with the confidence and wisdom of a mature author. The characters are so well written that even if I didn’t agree with them I could empathize with them. They started to grow on me and with every turn of a page, she left a piece of them inside me. It was a real and powerful feeling, like if something burned or cracked inside my chest.

I’m so excited that I discovered this book, and I will follow her career and eagerly wait for anything else she writes. It is a debut novel that reveals a marvelous author.

About Fatima Farheen Mirza

Fatima Farheen Mirza was born and raised in California. She graduated from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, one of the top programs for creative writing in the US. She started writing A Place For Us when she was 18 years old.

Other books written by American women:

We just recommend books we’ve read 

Commonwealth – Ann Patchett (read by Ange and Ceci)

Sing, Unburied, Sing – Jesmyn Ward (read by Ceci)

Idaho – Emily Ruskovic (read by Ceci)

Bel Canto – Ann Patchett (read by Ange and Ceci)

Everything Here is Beautiful – Mira T. Lee (read by Ceci)

The Song of Achilles – Madeline Miller (read by Ange)

The Goldfinch – Donna Tartt (read by Ange and Ceci)

The Lowland – Jhumpa Lahiri (read by Ange and Ceci)

Beloved – Toni Morrison (read by Ange)

American initiatives and projects that support and empower girls and women

WriteGirl

WriteGirl is a Los Angeles-based creative writing and mentoring organization in which they match girls with women writers who mentor them in creative writing. WriteGirl is a community with 200 volunteer women writers serving more than 500 girls annually. The program includes a one-on-one mentoring and monthly creative writing workshops, where girls are given techniques, insights and hot topics for great writing in all genres from professional women writers. 100% of their graduating seniors have entered college.

VIDA Women in Literary Arts

VIDA is a non-profit feminist organization committed to creating transparency around the lack of gender parity in the literary landscape and to amplifying historically-marginalized voice. Every year they publish the VIDA count, which highlights gender imbalances in publishing. They also publish the VIDA Review which features written works of female and queer, trans and gender nonconforming individuals and organize events and festivals.

Although there has been some improvement, in more than half of the analyzed publications in 2017 women don’t make up even 40% on their publication’s run. You can check the VIDA Count here.