A Woman Is No Man

I put off reading this for a long time, which I shouldn't have because it was excellent, but it remains timely anyway. Every time I picked it up, I didn't want to put it down. It's about the lives of three generations of Palestinian women in particular, and Palestinian cultural and social expectations for women generally, even when said women had emigrated to New York in search of a life outside of a refugee camp. It was brutal, and ugly, and hopeless, even as the women - Deya, Isra and Fareedah - hoped for more, knowing that they were unlikely ever to get the things they wanted out of life. Things like being loved by someone, anyone. Like being respected for the sacrifices they made. Like not being shamed for only having daughters when sons are more highly valued. Like having a say in their own education, their own marriages, their own wishes for how to raise their children.

Told from all three perspectives and jumps around in time, so even though you know in advance what will happen, it's still chilling when you get there.

CW: domestic violence/abuse, murder, suicide, abortion, alcoholism. Possible infanticide, depending on whether you trust one of the narrators.