Head Above Water

Written By Linda Malek

Head Above Water: Reflections on Illness by Shahd Alshammari

Reviewed by Linda
📘📘📘📘📘

Thank you @neemtreepress for this copy!

Wow, what I can say? This book really moved me and caught me off guard. Above all, I think it's only right to thank the author for being so open, and vulnerable about their life as a Palestinian-Kuwaiti woman battling Multiple Sclerosis, and for letting us into intimate thoughts and conversations between mentor/academic and her mentee/confidante, Yasmeen.
I have sat on a review for a while because, to be honest, I don't think there are sufficient words to articulate Alshammari's memoir in a few paragraphs, but it's definitely the first recount I've read of an Arab woman living with a chronic illness. Except it's more than that. Let's not forget that in Kuwait, an Arab woman can't just be ill without having to tackle patriarchy, her identity as a single woman whilst being a successful and an established Professor, all in the same breath. Except Alshammari is doing just that and more. The opening chapters describe Alshammari's diagnosis and having to underplay the early signs of MS, whilst we are introduced to Alshammari's mother, the incredible Palestinian matriarch who moves mountains and doesn't let MS stand in her daughter's way. With stories about her family's lineage and her mother's upbringing, I found the author's description of her mother to be so wonderful - there are so many parallels and quotes that I could pick out but then I'd just end up copying and pasting the entire book. Alshammari not only shares her own experiences but of a few people around her who were affected by MS in some way. Those who were abandoned by family - just one heartbreaking example but one that felt all too familiar.
There’s still a lot of work to do to put MS on the map and make disability less of a taboo in the Middle East but Alshammari’s heartwarming and inspirational journey is a step in the right direction. If you read one book this year, make it this one.

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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