Five Books For Isolation
Written by Sofia Camaano Deus & Catriona Mahmoud
This week we dive deep into the literary form with recommended page turners perfect for reading in the sunshine.
(Insta: @portraitsoflonging)
The Return by Hisham Matar
This book narrates the return of the author to Libya in 2012 to investigate the disappearance of his father who as a dissident politician to Gadaffi’s regime was detained and not seen again. The book mixes, with immersive and poetic writing, his trip to the place where his father has been imprisoned with his childhood memories in Libya, Cairo and the United Kingdom. The return won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography.
(Insta: @martymezzadri)
The Story of a Seagull and the Cat Who Taught her to Fly by Luis Sepúlveda
Last April the Chilean journalist and writer Luis Sepúlveda passed away leaving us many interesting books. The story of a seagull and a cat who taught her to fly is a short book that narrates the unforeseen incident of a cat that ends up making a promise by which he needs to take care of a seagull’s egg and teach the baby bird how to fly. The book explores the animal life inside and their relationship with humans.
(Insta: @saba.zavarei)
Woman at Point Zero by Nawal al Saadawi
In the book, the author meets a prisoner condemned to a death sentence for murder and agrees to tell her story before she dies. The story explores how the life of a woman in Egypt is marked by men's power and patriarchal structures, not just reducing this event to her very life but extrapolating it to the whole society.
(Insta: @spoilerkween)
A Woman is no Man by Etaf Rum
A deeply moving account from four women about the Arab-American experience that, at times, is difficult to fathom, and wholly heartbreaking to experience. When visiting their homeland, a Palestinian family seek young women to arrange marriages with their sons, before returning with them to Brooklyn. What follows is the inner thoughts of a family afraid of assimilation and the tragic effect of mixing isolation with the lack of autonomy that Arab women can face.
(Insta: @poppylovesbookclub)
Once Upon A Time in the East: A Story of Growing Up by Xiaolu Guo
A memoir that gives valuable and fascinating insight into the development of China from the 1970s to now, Once Upon A Time in the East is the story of contemporary communism, and the role women play in its society.