The Beauty of Your Face

I have a feeling this will be a big hit when it releases in the spring. I absolutely adored every page of this book. The characters are relatable, well-rounded, and a delight to spend time with. The addition of the school shooting is heartbreaking and unfortunately quite timely. This is an important book and I can't wait to recommend it to everyone I know.

So many issues currently concerning so many readers are addressed in this wonderful and very relevant story. This author has much to say about the things we collectively care about and fear in 2020: school shootings, the dark corners of the Internet, the bitter ideological divisions in our country, and the struggles families face simply to survive are all here, thoughtfully explored with relatable characters and a brisk-paced, suspenseful storyline.

The book begins with what was supposed to be an ordinary day for Afaf Rahman, the principal of a Muslim school for girls in the Chicago suburbs. As she slips away for a private moment to pray, a school shooter breaks in and begins to kill her beloved students, slowly making his way to the closet where she is trapped, defenseless. From there, we are taken back in time to Afaf's tumultuous early life as the daughter of Palestinian immigrants. Mental illness of a parent, substance abuse in the family, relentless bigotry from the outside world, and the mysterious disappearance of her older sister are challenges that almost destroy Afaf, until she finds peace and a stable life path in Islam.

This book is beautifully written, and I came away from it with new regard for the power of forgiveness, the possibility for second chances, and a renewed appreciation for the gifts a life of faith holds for its followers. From a librarian's point of view, this is the ideal book to recommend to book clubs and other groups seeking a contemporary title worthy of discussion.

This was a book I had trouble putting down. Basically a story about a multi-generational Palestinian family living in the U,S., it portrayed the abuse and discrimination from their fellow Americans. The issue of the Muslim faith plays a huge role in the lives of the father and one daughter, thereby splintering the family. The book develops, going back and forth between the adult daughter, who is now a principal of a Muslim school, a shooter who threatens her, and the drama involving each family member. I highly recommend this excellent book.

Beautifully written, this book seamlessly moves backward and forward in time to tell the complex story of one Palestinian-American woman's efforts to create a life for herself and her family in a country whose ideal of equality and freedom of worship do not always match its reality. The opening scene of this novel is a school shooting at all-girl Muslim high school outside of Chicago. As Afaf hears the shooter progress through the school at which she is the principal, she remembers her painful childhood and her path to her faith. Through these recollections, the reader learns of her mother's mental illness, her father's retreat into alcoholism, her sister's disappearance, the bullying and bigotry she confronts on a daily basis at her high school and beyond, and her promiscuity in response to this painful childhood. These challenges she overcomes by finding her place within the Islamic community to which her father turned after a car accident that nearly took his life. Her embrace of Islam is a gradual process, and the author paints a complex picture of this process that defies the stereotypes so often embraced in this country about Islam and muslim women. It is her decision to wear the hijab, a sign of her commitment to the faith that she has chosen (a faith that her father also comes to embrace, but not her mother, brother, or sister). It is through her faith that she finds the strength to forgive her mother whose love she never felt as a child, and it is through her faith that she find the courage to confront the shooter.

A poignant indictment of the ongoing demonization of Muslims in this country and a powerful call to recognize our common humanity before it is too late -- this book should be a must-read for every American, as it is a much-needed reminder of the cruelties we perpetrate when we deny our common humanity by building walls between us according to religion, ethnicity, class, and race.

Thank you to Net Galley, the publisher, and the author for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Beauty of Your Face begins as Afaf Rahman walks away from her office at the Nurrideen Schoolofor Girls, a Muslim school. She slips away to a small room that years ago was a confessional when the building was originally a nunnery. This is where Afaf goes to do her morning prayers in private, but on this day, her prayers are interrupted by the terrifying sound of gunfire. This opening might lead you to believe that this is a story about a school shooting, but really it’s not. There is a school shooting and that plays a role in Afaf’s story, but The Beauty of Your Face is just that. Afaf’s story.

Afaf was born the second child of Palestinian immigrants. Her parents, much older sister and younger brother lived in a small apartment in the Chicago area. Their’s was not a happy family, nor were they a religious family. Their father was a drunk who cheated on their mother. Their mother was a deeply unhappy woman who desperately wanted to return to Palestine. The three kids got by, supporting each other, until that fell apart, too. At 10-years old, Afaf’s older sister vanished, just vanished.

“Afaf squeezes in and out of spaces, trying not to make noise around the apartment and at school. But Nada is bold and fearless. So different from her. So different from Mama.”

Now, you might think I’ve told you the whole story, but you’d be wrong. All I’ve shared is really just the set up for this beautiful character-driven story about Afaf, the life she led inside her very damaged family, and the journey that finally took her off the sad path her parents had put her on.

“Still her mother pines for the ones who are gone – Nada, Majeed – denying her and Baba, the ones who have stayed.”

The Beauty of Your Face has been one of my favorite books this year, but I know it won’t be for everyone. It started off a little slowly, but the further I read the more I cared about Afaf and the more I wanted to know how she could have ended up in that closet. Within the writing, you’ll find quite a bit of Arabic, often not translated. In the beginning this bothered me, but soon I realized I didn’t need an official translation. I could interpret the sentiment on my own. If those two small facts won’t bother you then this is a book well worth your time. Debut author Sahar Mustafah told a wonderful story and I loved the structure, each chapter ending with just a glimpse of what was happening back at the school. The Beauty of Your Face was the second book on this year’s Spring Preview and it was my second A book. Let’s hope the rest can live up to this high bar! Grade: A

Note: I received a copy of this book from W.W. Norton Company (via NetGalley) in exchange for my honest review.