What Zeyn Joukhadar Is Reading

Explore this reading list selected by the author of The Map of Salt and Stars and The Thirty Names of Night, Zeyn Joukhadar. Joukhadar's writing has appeared in Salon, The Paris Review, The Kenyon Review, and elsewhere, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and the Best of the Net. The Map of Salt and Stars was a 2018 Middle East Book Award winner in Youth Literature, a 2018 Goodreads Choice Award Finalist in Historical Fiction, and was shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize. He has received fellowships from the Montalvo Arts Center, the Arab American National Museum, Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the Camargo Foundation, and the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, and is a member of the Radius of Arab American Writers (RAWI).

"During the past six months of this pandemic, I've often turned to books to remind myself that I'm not the first to have felt like the world was ending. Right now I'm revisiting novels of other kinds of apocalypses in order to remember that many of us have already survived—and continue to survive—the unimaginable."

Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa

"Nahr, the Kuwaiti-born daughter of Palestinian refugees, navigates poverty, displacement, and sex work before losing her home as a result of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Eventually she makes her way back to Palestine under Israeli occupation, a decision that will change the course of her life."

There, There by Tommy Orange

"In this novel that weaves in and out of the first- and third-person perspectives of 12 Indigenous people living in Oakland, California, a dozen lives will converge on one fateful afternoon at a community pow wow, the events of which will lay bare the many layered and painful histories of a single city. Winner of the American Book Award and the California Book Award, Pulitzer Prize finalist."

An Unkindness of Ghosts edited by Rivers Solomon

"Humanity has abandoned earth in search of a new home, but even aboard the spaceship Matilda, the powerful rely on the forced labor of heavily policed Black and brown people. Solomon brilliantly portrays what it means to resist oppression under anti-Black, ableist, queerphobic and transphobic, and gender-based violence, and to build the joy, found family, and knowledge of our ancestors that allow us to thrive in the midst of it. Stonewall Honor Book, Firecracker winner, and a finalist for Locus, Lambda, Tiptree, and Hurston/Wright awards."

The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz

"After the failed uprisings called the Disastrous Events, an authoritarian government in an unnamed country imposes strict surveillance and a centralized authority called the Gate to control its people. When a man shot during the Disastrous Events is denied permission to have the bullet removed, his fellow citizens must decide whether to defy the Gate in order to save his life. Winner of the English PEN Translation Award."

The Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras

"In 1990s Colombia, seven-year-old Chula strikes up a friendship with Petrona, her family's live-in maid, who comes from a poverty-stricken neighborhood controlled by guerrilla fighters. Under Pablo Escobar's reign, the Bogotá Chula once knew becomes unrecognizable, and as the girls each choose their alliances, their friendship will have unimaginable consequences. California Book Award winner."

The Atlas of Reds and Blues by Devi S. Laskar

"When the American-born daughter of Bengali immigrants is shot by police officers in her own driveway, she traces back through her memory as she lies bleeding on the pavement, trying to reconcile the American South in which she grew up with the racism and police violence that has led to this moment. Asian/Pacific American Award in Literature winner; winner of the Crook's Corner Book Prize for the best debut novel set in the American South."

Adua by Igiaba Scego

"In this novel by Somali Italian author Igiaba Scego, Adua, named for the first decisive victory won by an African power against European colonizers, leaves Somalia for Rome to pursue her dreams as a film star and escape her strict father. Years later, she recounts her personal history, revealing the ever-present legacies of colonialism and misogynoir as well as the resistance to these forces that led her father to give Adua her name."

The Silence and the Roar by Nihad Sīrīs

"In this novel, banned in Syria, Fathi Sheen, an author censored for refusing to write propaganda for the ruling government of an unnamed country, wakes up to the blaring of loudspeakers celebrating a government parade in the oppressive heat. As Fathi makes his way through the throng to reach the cool quiet of his girlfriend's apartment, however, he is detained by police, and his words may prove to be his only defense—or his undoing."

NYPL cardholders can find these books on SimplyE, the Library's free e-reader app. Plus, new users who live in New York State can apply for a library card directly through the app. Learn more and download for iPad/iPhone and Android.
Interested in more reading recommendations? Sign up for the Library's Book of the Day email.

Summaries provided by Zeyn Joukhadar. Click through on each book title for more information.