These impossible things :

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Title :

These impossible things : [a novel] / Salma El-Wardany.

Title:

These impossible things :

Author:

El-Wardany, Salma

Format:

Books

Physical Description:

387 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

ISBN:

9781538709306

9781538709313

Production / Publication Information:

New York : Grand Central Publishing, 2022.

General Note:

Subtitle from cover.

Summary:

"It's always been Malak, Kees, and Jenna against the world. Since childhood, under the watchful eyes of their parents, aunties and uncles, they've learned to live their own lives alongside the expectations of being good Muslim women...With growing older and the stakes of love and life growing higher, the delicate balancing act between rebellion and religion is becoming increasingly difficult to navigate. As their lives begin to take different paths, Malak, Kees, and Jenna--now on the precipice of true adulthood--must find a way back to each other as they reconcile faith, family, and tradition with their own needs and desires"--

Language:

English

Genre:

Psychological fiction.

Domestic fiction.

Novels.

Subject Term:

Muslim women -- Fiction.

Female friendship -- Fiction.

Individuality -- Fiction.

Families -- Fiction.

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Material Type	Library	Call Number	Item Barcode	Location
Book	Searching... Andover - Memorial Hall Library	FICTION EL-WARDANY	31330009211461	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Andover - Memorial Hall Library	BOOK CLUB / EL-WARDANY	31330009352349	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Billerica Public Library	FICTION/EL-WARDANY	33934004530714	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Boxford Town Library	FIC EL-WARDANY	32115002181517	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Burlington Public Library	F EL-WAR	32116003905276	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Chelmsford Public Library	FIC/EL-WARDANY	31480011570683	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Dunstable Free Public Library	ELW	32118001078668	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Essex - T.O.H.P. Burnham Free Library	F EL-	32119000439323	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Groton Public Library	FIC EL-WARDANY	37003701962343	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Groveland - Langley-Adams Library	FIC EL-WARDANY	32121000922399	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Hamilton-Wenham Public Library	FIC EL-WARDANY	30470002028073	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Haverhill Public Library	FIC/EL-WARDANY S	31479007579344	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Ipswich Public Library	FIC EL-WARDANY, SALMA	32122002949877	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Lowell - Pollard Memorial Library	FIC EL-WARDANY	31481005618645	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Manchester-by-the-Sea Public Library	FIC ELW	32124002076750	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Methuen - Nevins Memorial Library	FIC ELW	31548003433183	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Middleton - Flint Public Library	F EL-WARDANY	32126001872469	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Newbury Town Library	ELW	32127001329757	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Newburyport Public Library	FIC EL-WARDANY S	32128004087343	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... North Andover - Stevens Memorial Library	F EL-WARDANY	31478010201979	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... North Reading - Flint Memorial Library	FIC EL-WARDANY S	31550002497235	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Tewksbury Public Library	FICTION EL-WARDANY	32132003332213	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Topsfield Town Library	FIC EL-WARDANY	32133002627462	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Westford - J.V. Fletcher Library	F EL-WARDANY	31990005120329	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Wilmington Memorial Library	FICTION EL-WARDANY, SALMA	32136003645714	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

A Read With Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick!

Three best friends navigate love, sex, faith--and the one night that changes it all--in this novel that reveals " searing and poignant truths about the female experience" (Ashley Audrain, NYT bestselling author of The Push )

Whatever happened to the way we were?

It's always been Malak, Kees, and Jenna against the world. Since childhood, under the watchful eyes of their family and community, these three best friends have had to navigate love, sex, faith, and womanhood alongside the expectations of being good Muslim women. But they've always done it together.

Malak wants the dream: for her partner, community, and faith to coexist happily, and she'll even break her own heart to get it. Kees is in love with Harry, a white Catholic man who her parents can never know about. Jenna is always the life of the party, even though she's plagued by an unshakable loneliness. But when their college years come to a

close, one night changes everything.

As their lives take different paths, in the wake of heartbreaks, marriages, new careers and new beginnings, Malak, Kees, and Jenna need each other more than ever. Can they forgive and find a way back to each other in time?

These Impossible Things is a moving paean to youth and female friendship--and to all the joy and messiness love holds.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

El-Wardany's entertaining debut follows the romantic relationships of three Muslim women living in London in the early 2010s. Ever since Kees, Malak, and Jenna met in weekend Islamic school, they've shared a tight friendship grounded in religion. Now in their 20s, the trio remain close and primarily date non-Muslim men, despite their families' expectations that they should marry within the faith. After Malak's white, agnostic boyfriend realizes Malak will never be able to tell her parents about their relationship, they break up. A heartbroken Malak then vindictively tells Kees that Kees's relationship with Harry, a white man, also won't last. Tempers flare and the fight creates a lasting rift. The three go their separate ways: Malak moves to Cairo, where she dates a seemingly perfect Muslim man; Kees gets a job as an attorney, but her relationship with Harry becomes increasingly strained; and Jenna represses her loneliness with reckless casual hookups. As the months pass and the trio's romantic lives become increasingly tumultuous, they come to recognize the value of the friendship they once shared. The complex characters are well observed and the prose is often moving: "Although the breakup was mutual, it was an unexpected specter, slipping quietly unnoticed through the door." Fresh, witty, and insightful, this is an auspicious start. Florence Rees, AM Heath Literary. (June)

Kirkus Review

El-Wardany's sparkling, incisive debut uses the conventions of romantic comedy to explore the social and personal tensions faced by young Muslim women in contemporary Britain. In London in the early 2000s, three lifelong friends are about to graduate from university and have to make decisions about their professional and--more importantly, from this novel's point of view--personal lives. Jenna, a medical student from a British Palestinian family, juggles boyfriends with an eye on finally marrying an appropriate Muslim until an assault leaves her depressed and willing to settle for someone she doesn't truly love. Malak, whose family is Egyptian and who doesn't know exactly what she wants to do with her life, loves Jacob but breaks up with him because he isn't Muslim and she knows her family will never approve. When she moves temporarily to Egypt, she meets Ali, a British Muslim who seems perfect at first but later reveals a cruel side. Bilquis, known as Kees, whose family is Pakistani and who's in love with Catholic Harry, makes the opposite decision: She decides to stay with him and is shunned by her family. The choices Malak and Kees make lead to their estrangement, with Jenna caught in the middle until a crisis reunites the three. While the novel's male characters aren't as well developed, often being either too good or evil to be believable, the three young women and their family members are complex and engaging, while the decisions they make, and often reconsider, are rooted in realistic cultural and emotional pressures. While frothy and chatty, with witty dialogue and plenty of weddings and other gatherings that spark interactions among the characters, the book doesn't shy away from more serious issues, including rape, domestic violence, and unwanted pregnancy. This novel is blessed by a light touch and evenhanded treatment of its two generations of characters. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Library Journal Review

DEBUT This coming-of-age novel by El-Wardany, an Egyptian Irish poet and BBC broadcaster, captures perfectly the uncertainty of life in one's mid-20s and how easy it is to become unmoored. Malak, Kees, and Jenna, British Muslim women who've been friends since childhood, are graduating from university and excited to embark on the rest of their lives, secure in their friendship. Then a fight between Malak and Kees tears the women apart, devastating all three. Malak, still hurting from the recent break-up of a long-term romantic relationship, decides that a fresh start in Cairo is just what she needs. Kees, worried that her relationship with her boyfriend will suffer the same fate, throws herself into her work. Meanwhile, Jenna spends more time dating and partying, until one horrible night changes everything for her. As the women navigate a harsh world, they come to realize how much they need each other. VERDICT El-Wardany's highly recommended debut sensitively handles rape, domestic abuse, and the pressure of familial obligation. The book's particular strength is in its treatment of the women's Islamic faith as each grapples with what it means to be devout. There are no easy answers here, and readers will be thinking about Malak, Kees, and Jenna long after they close the book.--Lynnanne Pearson