Publishers Weekly
★ 02/28/2022
This sweeping debut novel from Al-Nakib (after the collection The Hidden Light of Objects) imagines an alternate reality for contemporary Kuwait in which blasphemy is made a capital crime. Sara, a professor of philosophy at Kuwait University, has been accused of blasphemy by one of her students. The offending lesson was on Nietzsche; according to her lawyer, the text’s Arabic translation “sounds even more damning” than the original. She examines why she returned to Kuwait 11 years earlier after so many years away, most recently in Berkeley, Calif. Part of it was to be closer to the spirit of her late mother. She also considers how previous generations of her family endured their country’s painful draconian rule. Alternating chapters skip between Sara’s present dilemma and the difficult choices her great-grandparents, grandparents, and parents made as they moved to Turkey, Iraq, India, and the U.S., only to find themselves ever again Kuwaitis. Al-Nakib renders each family member with care and exacting observation. As Sara’s verdict looms, this grapples profoundly with the limits of individual choice and the hold exerted by a person’s homeland. The result is accomplished and searing. Agent: Anjali Singh, Ayesha Pande Literary. (Apr.)
From the Publisher
This sweeping debut novel from Al-Nakib (after the collection The Hidden Light of Objects) imagines an alternate reality for contemporary Kuwait in which blasphemy is made a capital crime…Al-Nakib renders each family member with care and exacting observation.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"So fresh and unsettling that it will enchant you from the first page and linger for days after reading. ... Deftly written. ... Its epic family saga style echoes that of Hala Alyan’s Salt Houses and The Arsonists’ City, Ayad Akhtar’s Homeland Elegies, and Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko." — Los Angeles Review of Books
“Deeply enchanting, at times suspenseful, and always engaging, An Unlasting Home is filled with tales of women’s lives and their intersection with the often volatile and unpredictable currents of nations, war, and political history. Mai Al-Nakib’s storyteller’s voice is fresh and original—her book grabbed me from the outset and kept me entranced to the last page.” — Diana Abu-Jaber, author of Fencing with the King and Crescent
“An Unlasting Home is an unforgettable story of people making choices for love, family, freedom, and identity against the tidal forces of history in the Arab region. Shimmering with poetic prose, and as pressingly real as the white heat of August in Baghdad, this poignant debut will keep you in its thrall.” — Juhea Kim, author of Beasts of a Little Land
"A spellbinding family history unfolds as a Kuwaiti woman goes on trial for blasphemy in a world gone mad. Deftly written, structurally brilliant, Mai Al-Nakib’s An Unlasting Home is a lasting novel that splits open time, leaps across continents, and creates the sort of characters we carry forward into our hearts and lives. I absolutely loved this book." — A. Manette Ansay
"Grapples profoundly with the limits of individual choice and the hold exerted by a person’s homeland...accomplished and searing." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“This smooth, fast-flowing narrative stands as a testament to the eternal vibrancy and pluck of women in the Arab world.” — Financial Times
"Mai Al-Nakib lyrically explores themes of homeland, tradition and agency as she relates the stories of generations of Arab women across Kuwait, the US, Iraq, India and Lebanon." — Ms. magazine
"A sweeping novel that will stick with readers for a long time." — Debutiful
"For lovers of sweeping, multigenerational epics like Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing or Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko, this story following three generations of Arab women will strike right at the heart." — Bitch Media
"An ambitious family epic with a historical sweep, an elegy to grandmothers and mothers who were forced from their original homes by personal or political circumstances in the Middle East to build nests elsewhere." — World Literature Today
"Refreshing and eye-opening." — Electric Literature
“Penetrating insight and such compressed lyricism that at times her prose seems to border on poetry. A densely imagined and beautifully written debut.” — Sydney Morning Herald on The Hidden Light of Objects
“The Hidden Light of Objects marks the emergence of an author already confident in her craft and her ability to give voice to the emotions and yearnings of her characters.” — New Internationalist
“The old world and the new. The strife in the Gulf, once peaceful and reflective. East and West, Arabic and English, the poetry of the heart, the eye of the hawk; all these elements produce the lustrous pearls of Mai Al-Nakib’s short stories.” — Hanan al-Shaykh, author of Beirut Blues, on The Hidden Light of Objects
“The Hidden Light of Objects brings forth both the light and the shadows of the contemporary Middle East in clean-edged prose that startles us, not with sudden violence or polemic, but with the ineluctable force of human desire. Kuwait itself becomes a character, full of contradictions, in this multifaceted set of stories and vignettes. Superb.” — Lucy Ferriss, author of The Lost Daughter
Lucy Ferriss
The Hidden Light of Objects brings forth both the light and the shadows of the contemporary Middle East in clean-edged prose that startles us, not with sudden violence or polemic, but with the ineluctable force of human desire. Kuwait itself becomes a character, full of contradictions, in this multifaceted set of stories and vignettes. Superb.
Hanan al-Shaykh
The old world and the new. The strife in the Gulf, once peaceful and reflective. East and West, Arabic and English, the poetry of the heart, the eye of the hawk; all these elements produce the lustrous pearls of Mai Al-Nakib’s short stories.
A. Manette Ansay
"A spellbinding family history unfolds as a Kuwaiti woman goes on trial for blasphemy in a world gone mad. Deftly written, structurally brilliant, Mai Al-Nakib’s An Unlasting Home is a lasting novel that splits open time, leaps across continents, and creates the sort of characters we carry forward into our hearts and lives. I absolutely loved this book."
Sydney Morning Herald on The Hidden Light of Objects
Penetrating insight and such compressed lyricism that at times her prose seems to border on poetry. A densely imagined and beautifully written debut.
New Internationalist
The Hidden Light of Objects marks the emergence of an author already confident in her craft and her ability to give voice to the emotions and yearnings of her characters.
Juhea Kim
An Unlasting Home is an unforgettable story of people making choices for love, family, freedom, and identity against the tidal forces of history in the Arab region. Shimmering with poetic prose, and as pressingly real as the white heat of August in Baghdad, this poignant debut will keep you in its thrall.
Diana Abu-Jaber
Deeply enchanting, at times suspenseful, and always engaging, An Unlasting Home is filled with tales of women’s lives and their intersection with the often volatile and unpredictable currents of nations, war, and political history. Mai Al-Nakib’s storyteller’s voice is fresh and original—her book grabbed me from the outset and kept me entranced to the last page.”
Library Journal
11/01/2021
A philosophy professor at Kuwait University who returned home from Berkeley after her mother's death and now struggles with loneliness and a sense of unbelonging, Sara faces a crisis when she's accused of blasphemy for teaching Nietzsche, which could lead to her execution. Blended into the narrative are the stories of Sara's grandmothers, proud Yasmine and poor-born Lulwa; Sara's ambitious mother, Noura; and Marie, the ayah who left behind her own children to raise Sara. Following the award-winning collection The Hidden Light of Objects; with a 50,000-copy first printing.
