Home Is Not a Country
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4.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • A CORETTA SCOTT KING HONOR BOOK • A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST YOUNG ADULT BOOK OF THE CENTURY
“Nothing short of magic.” —Elizabeth Acevedo, New York Times bestselling author of The Poet X
From the acclaimed poet featured on Forbes Africa’s “30 Under 30” list, this powerful novel-in-verse captures one girl, caught between cultures, on an unexpected journey to face the ephemeral girl she might have been. Woven through with moments of lyrical beauty, this is a tender meditation on family, belonging, and home.
my mother meant to name me for her favorite flower
its sweetness garlands made for pretty girls
i imagine her yasmeen bright & alive
& i ache to have been born her instead
Nima wishes she were someone else. She doesn’t feel understood by her mother, who grew up in a different land. She doesn’t feel accepted in her suburban town; yet somehow, she isn't different enough to belong elsewhere. Her best friend, Haitham, is the only person with whom she can truly be herself. Until she can't, and suddenly her only refuge is gone.
As the ground is pulled out from under her, Nima must grapple with the phantom of a life not chosen—the name her parents meant to give her at birth—Yasmeen. But that other name, that other girl, might be more real than Nima knows. And the life Nima wishes were someone else's. . . is one she will need to fight for with a fierceness she never knew she possessed.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Nostalgia for the unknown controls the rhythm of this resonant novel in verse. Muslim, implied Sudanese American Nima, 14, feels invisible and unmoored, wishing she were "a girl mouth open & fluent who knows where she is from." Pining for the love of her late father, and facing constant abuse at school because of her accent and identity ("a boy at school/ called me a terrorist"), Nima lives alone with her hijabi mother; her only friend is an energetic boy in her building named Haitham, who feels like a sibling. As rising Islamophobia in their suburban American community increases both the bullying at school and her and her mother's fear, Nima longs for the life she believes she would have had if she had been named Yasmeen as planned. With her desire to become Yasmeen growing, Nima begins seeing glimpses of her other self while beginning to disappear. After a string of incidents leaves her feeling completely alone, Nima meets Yasmeen, launching both into their parents' past and homeland to decide which of them will be born. Artfully profound and achingly beautiful, Elhillo's verse aptly explores diasporic yearning for one's home and a universal fascination with possibilities. Ages 12–up.
