Laury Silvers’ historical mystery, The Lover: A Sufi Mystery, follows the journey of twins Zaytuna and Tein as they confront the legacy of their famous mother, an ecstatic Sufi who preached in the graveyards and the streets as she wandered across the Muslim empire, to uncover the mystery behind the…
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I am an author, mama to two little boys, lawyer, teacher, and maker and drinker of chai [lots and lots of chai]. Who are you? I am an author, mama to two little boys, lawyer, teacher, and maker and drinker of chai [lots and lots of chai]. I’m also…
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[title maintitle=”” subtitle=”Footnotes on science fiction, politics & Muslim protagonists”] I remember the first, bonafide adult books I read: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card and I, Robot by Isaac Asimov. They changed me irreparably and began a lifelong addiction to science fiction. Kurt Vonnegut helped me understand the trauma…
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Laila stared at a slab of pork at the supermarket and calculated the cost of a nervous breakdown: $150 an hour for the shrink, $200 a month for pills not covered by insurance, another $200 for a homeopathic doctor and nutritionist, at least $500 for a lawyer to write up her will in case she became suicidal, and $850 for a self-actualization yoga retreat in California. Throw in another $600 for a couple of colonics and a massage. Expensive. The one thing Laila had inherited from Fatima, besides the nose, was the ability to do math and shop at the same time. A nervous breakdown, along with all her other medical expenses, was just not in the family budget.
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In her poetic new novel, Elif Shafak explores two parallel journeys toward Love – one set in modern times and another in the thirteenth century, between Sufi masters Rumi and Shams of Tabriz. The intersection between these two narratives reveals important lessons about self, selflessness, and Divine submission. Altmuslimah’s Asma Uddin spoke with the author about the deeper messages behind her lyrical prose.
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There is much to recommend about Kamran Pasha’s powerfully and sensitively written new novel Mother of the Believers, where Pasha proves his mettle as a writer representing the voice of a fiery and controversial female protagonist who lived fourteen hundred years ago.
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