Silence Is a Sense
Books | Fiction / Political
4.2
Layla AlAmmar
“Lyrical, moving, and revealing." —Tracy Chevalier, bestselling author of Girl with a Pearl Earring A transfixing and beautifully rendered novel about a refugee’s escape from civil war—and the healing power of community. A young woman sits in her apartment, watching the small daily dramas of her neighbors across the way. She is an outsider, a mute voyeur, safe behind her windows, and she sees it all—the sex, the fights, the happy and unhappy families. Journeying from her war-torn Syrian homeland to this unnamed British city has traumatized her into silence, and her only connection to the world is the column she writes for a magazine under the pseudonym “the Voiceless,” where she tries to explain the refugee experience without sensationalizing it—or revealing anything about herself. Gradually, though, the boundaries of her world expand. She ventures to the corner store, to a bookstore and a laundromat, and to a gathering at a nearby mosque. And it isn’t long before she finds herself involved in her neighbors’ lives. When an anti-Muslim hate crime rattles the neighborhood, she has to make a choice: Will she remain a voiceless observer, or become an active participant in a community that, despite her best efforts, is quickly becoming her own? Layla AlAmmar, a Kuwaiti-American writer and brilliant student of Arab literature, delivers here a complex and fluid book about memory, revolution, loss, and safety. Most of all, Silence is a Sense reminds us just how fundamental human connection is to survival.
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More Details:
Author
Layla AlAmmar
Pages
304
Publisher
Algonquin Books
Published Date
2021-03-16
ISBN
1643750267 9781643750262
Community ReviewsSee all
"This was a powerfully written book about a girl who was a refugee from Syria who is now in the UK, all by herself. From trauma she wasn’t able to speak anymore, and she enjoyed people watching her neighbors. She also wrote about her experiences to a local paper with the name “voiceless”. With eloquent prose, this was an emotional read regarding the girls journey and her ability to realize human connection is what she needed the most. <br/><br/>Not typically a genre i read, but it kept me captivated. Although, in some spots it was a little intense."
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