Against the Loveless World

Written By Linda Malek

Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa
Reviewed by Mimi
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Nahr is a Palestinian refugee residing in an Israeli jail. She has had a tumultuous life and writes about her life whilst confined to the Cube. She starts out in Kuwait with her mother, paternal grandmother and brother. She marries a man who abandons her and this is where her life begins to fall apart.

Nahr is tricked into prostitution but can't see another way to earn the money she desperately wants for her brother's education. Kuwait is invaded by Iraq and then follows the US invasion. Nahr and her family escape to Jordan to begin with but she eventually reaches Palestine where she meets the true love of her life and joins a band of rebels who decided to take back their land. She is absorbed into this life and has never felt more at home than when she is in Palestine. 🇵🇸

I have never read anything quite like this. The mixture of modern-day, older Nahr rebelling against her captors and young radicalised Nahr fighting the good fight is just gripping. One of my favourite elements is the way she manages her relationships with the people around her- her mother, her brother, the people who support her, the radical group she joins- the way she has to change and adapt to her situation is just fascinating. This felt fresh and dynamic. I was absorbed and invested at every stage. The writing is rich and intense. The names and the faces of the Israeli occupation of Palestine are what make this such a powerful read and I loved it. 💛

Linda Malek

I've always had the urge to set up a forum and voice my thoughts after each read, but never had the confidence to do so alone. 18 months ago, I got my fellow book-loving friends involved and formed The Candid Book Club! Aside from having an exponentially growing to-read pile and deteriorating shortsightedness, we've been lucky to have been invited to publisher events and have attended several talks with our favourite authors (Thank you and long may they continue!) To take a break from the pressures of PhD Chemistry, Jess and I exchanged books all the time and in my youth, I was that kid with the first editions of Harry Potter having already read Gulliver’s travels and some Charles Dickens. At work, my desk is a library and luckily for me I sit next to another bookworm Jack who entertains all the photo-taking. I'm suffering from a chronic case of wanderlust (age-related crisis) so books which are set as far away from home as possible tend to float my boat: Middle East, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Asia...you name it. But if it's got anything to do with Egypt then I'm all over it. So you get the drift...I read all the time, everywhere (on the tube mostly), everyday, a book a week, and very quickly I'm onto the next! And then sometimes there is a book that stops me in my tracks, makes me want to swallow the pages whole, and have it next to me at all times, with some sentences staying with me forever: Shantaram by David Gregory Roberts, anything by Khaled Hosseini, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo (absolute gem of a woman), A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, The Good Immigrant edited by Nikesh Shuklaand and anything by Naguib Mahfouz.

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