A woman is no man : a novel

Resource Information

The work A woman is no man : a novel represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in San Francisco Public Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Audio, Nonmusical, Sounds, Music.

Label

A woman is no man : a novel

Title remainder

a novel

Statement of responsibility

Etaf Rum

Creator

• Rum, Etaf

Contributor

• Delawari, Ariana, 1980-
• hoopla digital
• Salem, Dahlia
• Nezami, Susan

Author

• Rum, Etaf

Narrator

• Salem, Dahlia
• Delawari, Ariana, 1980-
• Nezami, Susan

Subject

• Children of immigrants -- Fiction
• Palestinian Americans -- Fiction
• Women -- New York (State) | New York -- Fiction
• Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) -- Fiction

Genre

• Fiction

Language

eng

Summary

Three generations of Palestinian-American women living in Brooklyn are torn between individual desire and the strict mores of Arab culture in this powerful debut-a heart-wrenching story of love, intrigue, courage, and betrayal that will resonate with women from all backgrounds, giving voice to the silenced and agency to the oppressed. "Where I come from, we've learned to silence ourselves. We've been taught that silence will save us. Where I come from, we keep these stories to ourselves. To tell them to the outside world is unheard of-dangerous, the ultimate shame." Palestine, 1990. Seventeen-year-old Isra prefers reading books to entertaining the suitors her father has chosen for her. Over the course of a week, the naïve and dreamy girl finds herself quickly betrothed and married, and is soon living in Brooklyn. There Isra struggles to adapt to the expectations of her oppressive mother-in-law Fareeda and strange new husband Adam, a pressure that intensifies as she begins to have children-four daughters instead of the sons Fareeda tells Isra she must bear. Brooklyn, 2008. Eighteen-year-old Deya, Isra's oldest daughter, must meet with potential husbands at her grandmother Fareeda's insistence, though her only desire is to go to college. Deya can't help but wonder if her options would have been different had her parents survived the car crash that killed them when Deya was only eight. But her grandmother is firm on the matter: the only way to secure a worthy future for Deya is through marriage to the right man. But fate has a will of its own, and soon Deya will find herself on an unexpected path that leads her to shocking truths about her family-knowledge that will force her to question everything she thought she knew about her parents, the past, and her own future. Set in an America at once foreign to many and staggeringly close at hand, A Woman Is No Man is a story of culture and honor, secrets and betrayals, love and violence. It is an intimate glimpse into a controlling and closed cultural world, and a universal tale about family and the ways silence and shame can destroy those we have sworn to protect

Accompanying matter

technical information on music

Cataloging source

Midwest

Dewey number

813/.6

Form of composition

not applicable

Format of music

not applicable

Literary text for sound recordings

fiction

PerformerNote

Performed by Ariana Delawari, Dahlia Salem and Susan Nezami

Target audience

adult

Transposition and arrangement

not applicable