A Woman Is No Man

Starred review from February 1, 2019

DEBUT In her propulsive first novel, Rum tackles domestic violence and the strict mores of traditional Arab culture, showing how they affect three generations of Palestinian women. The Brooklyn-set story focuses on Isra, a young Palestinian whose family has married her off to Adam and sent her to America to live with his family. His overbearing mother, Fareeda, reinforces the gender restrictions and stereotypes that have led to her own oppression. Rum adeptly knits together the narratives of these two women with that of Isra's daughter Deya to reveal Isra's story. Deya, who lives with her grandparents and Isra's other three daughters, resists an arranged marriage, and Rum injects suspense as Deya gradually discovers the truth about her mother and father's relationship. Thus she gains the strength and insight needed to face her future, perhaps the same strength and insight required of Rum to write this book. VERDICT Rum admits in the introduction that "to tell this story would be the ultimate shame to my community." Through well-developed characters and a wonderfully paced narrative, she exposes the impact that the embedded patriarchy of some cultures can have on women while showing more broadly how years of shame, secrets, and betrayal can burden families across generations no matter what the cultural or religious affiliation. Highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, 9/24/18.]--Faye Chadwell, Oregon State Univ., Corvallis

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January 15, 2019
In his last sermon, the Prophet Muhammad said, "Observe your duty to Allah in respect to the women, and treat them well," but in many Muslim countries, tradition relegates women to subservient roles. Isra Hadid, the heroine of Rum's debut novel, has been reminded of this every day of her life.Unable to complete school in Palestine, where she grew up, Isra was married off by her parents to American deli owner Adam Ra'ad and sent to Brooklyn, New York, where she was forced to live in the crowded Bay Ridge home of her in-laws, Fareeda and Khaled, and their three other children. Almost immediately tensions erupted, and the newly arrived immigrant found herself on the receiving end of near-daily beatings and verbal abuse. Conditions further worsened after Isra gave birth to four daughters in little more than five years--her lack of sons being evidence, Fareeda claims, of Isra's deficiency. The situation shifts dramatically, however, after Isra and Adam are killed in an accident, leaving their children to be raised by the Ra'ads. Now, a decade after Isra's and Adam's deaths, their oldest child, Deya, age 18, receives a mysterious message from an unidentified source, asking her to travel to a Manhattan bookshop. When she does, an estranged family member reveals some jarring truths about the family's history. More importantly, the disclosure gives Deya the tools she needs to take charge of her life rather than allowing Fareeda and Khaled to marry her off. In a note accompanying an advance copy of her book, Rum acknowledges that writing her intergenerational saga meant "violating [the] code of silence" and might even bring "shame to [her] community." Nonetheless, in telling this compelling tale, Rum--who was born in Brooklyn to Palestinian immigrants herself--writes that she hopes readers will be moved "by the strength and power of our women."A richly detailed and emotionally charged debut.

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November 1, 2018
"No matter how many books you've read, no one has ever told you a story like this one." The prologue's empathic statement is not accurate. Tara Westover's Educated (2018) and Anouk Markovits' I Am Forbidden (2012) feature women trapped by religion and culture who break free to claim their own lives. First-time novelist Rum's setting, however, is rare: a Brooklyn Palestinian enclave in which reputation matters above all else. In 1990, 17-year-old Isra becomes Adam's wife-by-arrangement, leaving Birzeit, Palestine, for New York. Her mother-in-law, Fareeda, rules the multigenerational home, ensuring that Isra serves and honors. By 2008, Isra and Adam are dead, and Fareeda is pressuring their 18-year-old daughter, Deya, to repeat the cycle of early marriage and motherhood. Determined to escape her mother's fate, Deya discovers an unlikely ally and struggles to save herself and her family. The daughter of Brooklyn Palestinian immigrants, Rum was often told "a woman is no man. Overcoming her fear of community reprisal, she alchemizes that limiting warning into a celebration of "the strength and power of our women."(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)