Welcome to Litsy!

Reviews had me prepared to dislike this #wpf25 title but instead I flirted with loving it. I couldn‘t fully commit because there was so much about her unhealthy relationship with Marlowe which didn‘t add much, just another story of an older male misusing a damaged girl. Nila‘s other relationships and what she hides from herself and others as she struggles with her identity are what made this book special. So many lines made me pause and reread.

I admire the writing and the akill of this novel. I see why it has made the short list for #womensprize, but it was not a novel for me.

Set in post-reunification Germany, Nila‘s Afghan parents & Nila struggle to find their cultural place in Berlin. Nila is coming of age in techno clubs and a drug-fuelled lifestyle of self-loathing & an obsession with her older American boyfriend. Her struggle to find her place & the cultural expectation that she be a good girl were all excellent. The messy narrative surrounding Nila & Marlowe less so. Overall this is an intriguing, absorbing read

I am beyond frustrated by this book. It has such rich material—fish out of water, racism, stranger in your own land—and it‘s just kind of a mess. Plus, there‘s an explosive event near the end that was so gripping, I really wish the book had been set around it, but instead it‘s squandered. What is this doing on the #WP25 short (or long) list?

Read because of the #womensprizeforfiction shortlist, but this one was really not for me. Strong, evocative writing but utter aimless characters and plot.

I kind of want this to win the Women's Prize. I do think The Safekeep is better and still have no idea why it didn't win the Booker.

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks

Another uncomfortable read from the Women‘s Prize list—this was just shortlisted, while I was in the middle of reading it. Nila is the “good girl” who relocates to Berlin with her Afghani family, both parents successful but forced to work in fast food in their new country. Shes miserable and constantly trying to escape her own skin by engaging in damaging behaviors with substances and unhealthy relationships. A rocky coming of age. Good audio.

Nila,the daughter of doctor refugees from Afghanistan,grows up in poverty in Berlin because both parents cannot work in their profession.she hides her identity,saying she‘s Greek or Israeli&instead of studying for college,goes to raves&techno clubs.One night she meets Marlowe&is mesmerised by the older man whose debut novel made him an Indy celebrity.lots of drugs,sex,art,books,self hate,hate for Germany&its racism,Islamophobia,oppression of women

I usually enjoy books about wandering Berlin, but this one not so much.

A bildungsroman featuring a lot of drugs, bad sex and bad choices, I winced for the protagonist as she made one awful decision after another. Lots of interesting individual elements, but I never felt I really understood where the author was going (and in placed desperately just hoped it would all just Stop!)

#WomensPrizeLL25

I was home neither in Rosenwald nor in Gropiusstadt. And like so many children before me, I became my own exile.

At school, the girls wore padded down jackets and boots I had seen only in equestrian ads. They knew how to ride horses and drank expensive water and used Dr. Hauschka products, which felt so expensive back then, I believed only millionaires could afford them. Longingly, I used a pump of their creams, inhaling that herbal scent.

Book 9 #WP25
This is a low pick for me. The last 100 pages were a bit of a struggle, I didn't want to pick it up and read more about her self destruction, but I was still interested in her life as an Afghani-German and what it was like as a German immigrant with so much hate that we don't talk about.
The writing throughout is solid, and the perspective is one I don't see a lot of in English Lit so it makes sense why this was chosen for the WP

She turned on the radio in the mornings, dancing when rock songs filled the kitchen with bygone delight. Recited poetry in an old, formal Persian-lines that I didn't understand but whose cadences imprinted themselves onto my brain-and took me to local libraries, where I was allowed to read as much as I wanted, the weight of the laminated library card like a luxurious treasure in my hand, my own name written in blue ink underneath: Nilab Haddadi.

...as if to signal to us idiots that reality still existed...

(How do you let someone know the party's over?)

#WeeklyForecast
#WP25 I have 100 pages left of the tagged then I can start A Little Trickerie which I am super excited for
🎧This week's listen will be Ancillary Justice my January #DoubleSpin

Then hoping to sneak in The Coin which needs to go back to the library.

"Yet the hymns, the hosannas and hevenu shalom aleichem, the psalms, the lessons of Genesis and Revolution, they did not remain. What remains is the searing loneliness I felt, the nights I stayed awake by myself, reading Wuthering Heights and Lolita, underlining everything, trying to forget the fact I was one of the only girls at school who had black hair.

#WP25

This is a hell of an intense book. The protagonist, Nila - as she likes to be known, not by her full first name, Nilab - is grieving her mother and uncomfortable with her Afghan identity in a city where racist attacks and neo-Nazis are on the rise, and she seeks solace/oblivion in the hedonism of the Berlin techno scene.

Library reservation came in early

Sunday morning reading buddy

Enjoyed this debut. We follow Nila, who is Afghan, but pretends to be other nationalities to avoid being profiled in Berlin.

The story is well crafted and it made me feel gritty and uncomfortable sometimes while reading (this is good!).

Loved!

TW: Substance abuse, domestic violence

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #arc Pub Date: 1/14/25

Currently reading… #arc