I was really excited to dive in to a novel about Kuwait, a country sorely underrepresented in the US/UK publishing world. However, An Unlasting Home was a disappointment. The narrative jumped around to so many different women's points of view, but they all seemed like the same character. I would have been invested in one or two but not so many who were so similar. This book needed a good editor to point this out to the author - with a little work to differentiate the characters, I think this novel could have really soared.

This was a great folloup read to my favorite book of the year, The Island of Missing Trees, first round purchase

A moving and well-plotted family saga, following a family over almost a century from Kuwait and Iraq to India and the United States, this is a remarkable debut.

Kuwait is a country that I shamefully know little about, other than that they are now a "stable" U.S. ally and so our media never talks about them. Even with my ignorance, I was able to follow the story that traces the growth of Kuwait over the 20th century as we see generations of a family impacted by independence, war, invasion, and theocracy.

We follow the women of the family from the 1920s to the 2010s as they marry for love, out of spite, and for security, and witness the increasing complications of the region. All of this cumulates in the blasphemy trial of Sara, now in her 40s in 2013 Kuwait. The author's note makes clear that this is an alternate universe situation, and that Kuwait did not enact the blasphemy law featured in the book, which I found very interesting, especially considering the author still lives and works in Kuwait.

We also follow Maria, who leaves her family behind in Pune as she becomes a domestic worker for the family. The majority of the characters in this book end up being very privileged, and I was pleased by the inclusion of a South Asian domestic worker in a Middle Eastern narrative, and how that traumatized her family even though it was done for their benefit. There was also one line later in the story about how Arab Spring protestors left trash behind for Bangladeshi workers to clean up. This wasn't a story about the hidden class divide in the Middle East, but I was grateful the author did allude to it.

I will say that the pacing fell apart a bit by the end, but considering the main plot of the book is Sara's blasphemy trial, I understand why. It's hard to cover 90+ years and have a main plot unfold in just 1 year all in the same book.

Overall, highly recommend this engaging and moving family epic. For those of us in the West under the age of 45 or so, it is a necessary recent history lesson and a reminder that the world is so very small and so very intertwined.

This is a gorgeous intergenerational story, and I love the unique rhythm in which in unfolds, steadily bringing us further and further along into the life of Sara, the young generation. That said, I could read entire novels more about Lulwa and Yasmine in particular.

Such a beautifully written book. I had hard time putting this one down. There were a few times when I got the story lines confused, but the family tree in the front of the book was a huge life saver. Loved how everything came full circle.

I tend to enjoy multigenerational sagas, and this one did not disappoint. Another plus, I enjoy books set in the Middle East. This beautifully written book follows the lives of three generations of Arab women. Over the years, the story takes us through the transformations not only of the women but of the country itself.

Present-day Sara has moved from Berkely and is now a philosophy professor at Kuwait University. As the story opens, she finds herself being arrested on a charge of blasphemy.

It is Sara who narrates the stories of her grandmothers. Lulwa was perhaps my favorite. She was born into a poor family in Kuwait and was sold to the son of a wealthy merchant who took her to India. Lulwa knew her intended husband and was happy with the arrangement. However, the economy was about to change. And Lulwa’s mother becomes bitterly manipulative.

Yasmine, born in Lebanon, is intelligent, beautiful, and stubborn. She becomes a teacher in Baghdad and falls in love with an Iraqi. Within a couple of years, she will regret her decision to marry him. I enjoyed reading of the friendship between Yasmine and Lulwa.

Noura, born in India, loves books and dreams of a life in America. She also feels a compulsion to tackle the serious political issues confronting Kuwait and the Middle East in general as the region goes through a major transformation.

Maria, also born in India, lives in poverty after the death of her husband. Out of desperation, she accepts the job of caring for Noura’s children. Thus, she leaves behind her children and goes to Kuwait. Her salary there will ensure her children’s education.

I enjoyed the perspective Al-Nakib gave of the Arab women’s lives. I think women everywhere can relate to certain aspects of their stories. These are strong, intelligent women who yearn to belong someplace but just not sure where that place is.

I had some difficulty fitting together the pieces of timelines and the alternating characters. I had to make notes to keep them all straight. The story is also a slow build, so be patient.

I received a complimentary copy of this book, but the opinions expressed are my own.

This debut novel tells the story of three generations of women (on both sides of a family) from the early 20th century to almost present day. The majority of the story is set in Kuwait (where the author was born), but it also spans India, Iraq, Lebanon and the United States. I much preferred the historical storylines to the contemporary one for the first half or so of the book, but by the end I was invested in all of them.

(Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC of this book.) Sara is a professor at a university in Kuwait who suddenly finds herself accused of blasphemy and arrested in one of the first cases against the country's new laws. As we learn more about her and her legal battle, we're also told the stories of the women who came before her - her previous generations. The story is beautiful and it's fun when the connections between the stories "clicked" in my head, but it was a little bit long for me! I did appreciate, at the end, that the author clarified whether or not the laws against blasphemy were real (they're not, but almost were).

The compelling family saga depicts the changing political and cultural environment in Kuwait through the stories of a college professor who stands accused of blasphemy and the history of her extended family.

A multigenerational story of women in Kuwait, India, the United States, and more. This started with Sara, a forty-one-year-old professor charged with blasphemy in Kuwait. From here the book goes back and forth in time, constantly changing perspectives, beginning with Sara's grandmother, and Yasmine, who would eventually be her very close friend.

Upon reading the premise, this sounded like my kind of story and it was to some extent. I think the author did a job of depicting people's daily lives in a specific period, and the history of the countries the story took place in. The writing was eloquent and very real. Although, I found it overwhelming at first. There were so many characters being introduced, that I could no longer keep track of their relations to each other. Sara's connection to the other women in the story wasn't made clear in the first parts but would be made so eventually, as it was for every character. Before that, I read her chapters in mild confusion. Aside from that, it took so long for things to take off. If you want a book that would have you worried or tense or just at the edge of your seat, I don't think this is it. There was tension in the latter parts but since this was told nonlinearly and there were chapters in the present, you'd come to anticipate things. There was an air of inevitability. And for me, detachment. I finished this book not having felt very close to these characters. I found their personalities to be somewhat similar to each other.

This novel was a bit difficult to start and get acquainted with for me, but once things got clearer, I got more familiar with who's who, and things started happening, it became a breeze to get through. I enjoyed learning about the history - of Kuwait, mostly - and cultures I am not very familiar with. This served as an eye-opener and was also strong thematically.

Review to be posted on my blog on Apr. 18!

It’s strange to me—but also not so strange—that for a species hardwired to spot patterns, we can be very dumb when it comes to not repeating bad patterns of behavior. In Mai al-Nakib’s deeply affecting and engrossing family saga, An Unlasting Home, we see three generations of women who are given choices that lead them into emotional traps. They are also given choices to get out of those traps but, for one reason or another, they walk into personal martyrdom in the form of bad husbands, needy family members, economics, and religion. As each generation grows old and has children, we’re left to wonder about the costs of sacrificing oneself for others against personal happiness.

We have several narrators in An Unlasting Home. In chronological order, we meet Yasmine and Lulwa, whose marriages and choices land them in neighboring houses in Kuwait City in the 1950s. Then we meet Maria, an Indian woman who comes to work for Lulwa’s daughter, Noura (another narrator). As these women recount their stories—and woven in between them—there is Sara, daughter of Noura, granddaughter of Yasmine and Lulwa, cared for by Maria. Before they all ended up in Kuwait, various members of the family lived in Lebanon, India, Iraq, and the United States. Kuwait is where everything converges.

Sara grew up in St. Louis and Kuwait City. Although she and her mother Noura felt like the United States was the best place for them to live freely, as individuals, family obligations bring Sara back after her mother’s death. Someone has to take care of Yasmine and Lulwa, Sara argues whenever anyone tells her she should go back to the States. This same family obligation is what pulled Lulwa away from her family for seven long years between the 1940s and 1950s, after her mentally ill mother tricked Lulwa into coming back to Kuwait from India. A different family obligation brought Yasmine from Basra to Kuwait when her moody husband failed to claim his father’s political position. Sara’s decision to stay turns into a crisis unlike what her mother and grandmothers went through. Unlike them, Sara might be pushed to break free of Kuwait and her family’s history when she is accused of blasphemy after teaching Nietzsche in her philosophy course at Kuwait University.

I can imagine readers’ responses to the choices made by the narrators in An Unlasting Home go in two very different directions. On the one hand, readers might rail against the decisions these characters make. They might holler at the pages for Yasmine, Lulwa, Maria, Noura, and Sara to cut loose and run. Their happiness is more important than living in misery to make others happy. Other readers might applaud the self-sacrifice of these characters. Without their choices, the family would’ve crumbled. And although I’ve probably painted a pretty bleak picture of these characters’ lives, there is a lot of happiness and joy in their lives. Yasmine and Lulwa and Maria delight in their children. Noura is able to express her opinions through her foreign language bookstore in Kuwait City. And Sara is a philosopher, through and through, and believes in her educational mission of teaching at Kuwait University. Where some readers would see a clear choice, others will see situations where it’s impossible to decide on the right course of action. After all, who can predict what will happen in the future?

This beautifully written book, with its wonderfully developed characters, is a fantastic read for book groups, or for readers who want to wrestle with the question of obligation versus self-actualization.

An Unlasting Home is a beautifully written family saga that tells the story of three generations of women in the Middle East, India, and the United States. This book has a little bit of everything: compelling characters, love, loss, and immigration issues. The bonds of family prove to be strong. Lovers of character-driven novels will enjoy this one.

Thank you to William Morrow and Custom House and NetGalley for this ARC.

The various plots and stories of this novel should be gripping: a young professor charged with blasphemy, her aunts' and mother's lives upended by politics and religious obligations. But the writing is stilted and old-fashioned, like a mannered novel from the 1950s. Much of it reads like journalism, like reporting, rather than a creative narrative, and the sentence structures rarely vary. Maybe it's the alternating chapters in past tense and present tense, but the read was rocky. In addition to the mannered writing, the characters are stiff, their actions melodramatic or at the opposite end of that spectrum..

Thank you for the ARC. I really enjoyed this book and will be recommending it! It will make a great book club read.



A family saga spanning decades in the history of an Arab family from the early years of the 20th century to contemporary Kuwait. This multigenerational novel focuses on the lives of the women in the family as they deal with immigration, growing families, love, tragedy, and political turmoil. Their stories are absorbing, the sense of place is rich, and the characters diverse. Readers who enjoyed Homegoing and Pachinko will enjoy this read.