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Title details for Evil Eye by Etaf Rum - Wait list

Evil Eye

A Novel

by Etaf Rum
Vaneh Assadourian
Audiobook
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"A moving meditation on motherhood, inter-generational trauma and how surface appearances often obscure a deeper truth. . . . A stunning second novel from a writer who set the bar very high with her first!"—Tara Conklin, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Romantics and Community Board

The acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of A Woman Is No Man returns with a striking exploration of the expectations of Palestinian-American women, the meaning of a fulfilling life, and the ways our unresolved pasts affect our presents.

""After Yara is placed on probation at work for fighting with a racist coworker, her Palestinian mother claims the provocation and all that's come after were the result of a family curse. While Yara doesn't believe in old superstitions, she finds herself unpacking her strict, often volatile childhood growing up in Brooklyn, looking for clues as to why she feels so unfulfilled in a life her mother could only dream of. Etaf Rum's follow-up to her 2019 debut, A Woman Is No Man, is a complicated mother-daughter drama that looks at the lasting effects of intergenerational trauma and what it takes to break the cycle of abuse."" —Time magazine, ""The Most Anticipated Books of the Year""

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    September 5, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780062987938
      • File size: 323560 KB
      • Duration: 11:14:04

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      August 28, 2023
      A universal portrait of motherhood and intergenerational trauma, Rum’s sophomore effort (after the bestselling A Woman Is No Man) tells the story of North Carolina–based college art teacher and graphic designer Yara, the daughter of Palestinian immigrants. Yara longs to travel, but her husband Fadi insists she stay home with their two young children. Then Yara is on the receiving end of a racist comment made by a woman colleague: “Please don’t take this the wrong way but it’s no secret that women from your country experience severe sexism and misogyny,” to which Yara responds, “I was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., you fucking racist.” The incident results in her suspension from the college, and she’s mandated to counseling, where her therapist helps her unpack her family history. While Yara’s mother has always insisted their family is cursed, Yara’s therapy work leads her to realize that the cause of her woes is not fantastical, but rather the generational cycle of obedience: “Why was she... waiting for a man to give her permission,” Yara wonders about herself. The fierce feminist sentiments and nuanced approach to Yara’s fraught marriage and family history make for a winning combination. This satisfies on multiple levels. Agent: Julia Kardon, Hannigan Getzler Literary.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Vaneh Assadourian and Gail Shalan perform this intimate story of a woman in her thirties. Yara, the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, has it all--a husband, two daughters, a job at a local university--but she still feels burned out. Through every disappointment, Yara tells herself to be grateful. Her marriage might have been arranged, but at least her husband isn't violent like her father. After an incident at her job, she starts seeing a therapist, begins to confront the trauma of her past, and works towards a better future. Assadourian skillfully narrates Yara's emotional arc, reflecting the character's depth. Shalan performs Yara's journal entries, giving listeners more insight into Yara's memories. K.D.W. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
    • Kirkus

      July 15, 2023
      Typical contemporary fiction about a woman's journey toward self-knowledge and identity is enriched by the protagonist's particular situation as the resentfully obedient daughter of Palestinian immigrants. On the first page, Yara, a wife and mother approaching 30, announces her intention--and by extension, author Rum's--to "reconcile past and present." Raised in Brooklyn within a tight Palestinian expatriate community, Yara has always been torn, wanting to honor the history and hardships of her ancestors while resisting many of her culture's prescriptions, agreeing to an arranged marriage but refusing hijab. For 10 years she has lived in North Carolina with her husband, Fadi, and their two daughters. Along the way she has earned a master's degree and works at a local college. But as her life begins falling apart, she can no longer avoid the unresolved conflict she has always felt--the safety of obedience versus an inner urge to break free and claim control over her life. Yara's central conflict revolves around her mother, a deeply troubled woman who, despite all-consuming anger and frustration, never considered leaving her abusive marriage. She always considered herself cursed and told Yara she was cursed, too. At a therapist's suggestion, Yara begins a journal to confront her past, but the repetitiveness of Yara's memories and her use of therapeutic jargon weaken the impact. More compelling are Yara's struggles within her own marriage. While Fadi is deeply flawed, he is neither stereotype nor villain. And Rum does not simplify the choices Yara faces as a woman whose ambition conflicts with family responsibility. The couple shares a surprising degree of intimacy--showering together most nights--and similar unhappy childhood memories. Whether Yara can break the vicious cycle in which she finds herself is the question. Rum's nuanced approach to difficult questions of individual and cultural identity is refreshing.

      COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Booklist

      Starred review from August 1, 2023
      Yara knows she should be happy. Unlike her grandmother, a Palestinian refugee, or her mother, saddled with a family and an abusive husband in a strange new country, Yara has lived a sheltered, privileged life in the U.S. with a hard-working husband, two beautiful daughters, and a university job. Yara's father, her husband Fadi, and Fadi's mother constantly remind her that her fits of discontent and depression are childish and nonsensical. But as Yara slowly begins to piece together her family's past, she realizes that her pain is rooted in rage at the sexism which allowed her brothers to pursue their careless dreams unfettered while she was promised only marriage, at Fadi's stubborn refusal to recognize her needs, and at how her mother's bitterness poisoned Yara's childhood. Dreaming her way back to idyllic memories of Palestine, Yara comes to terms with the crushing loss of their homeland and how their traumatic uprooting left its mark. Gradually, with the help of a supportive colleague, Yara rediscovers her sense of self, realizing she is like ""the olive trees in Palestine . . . chopped from the roots. How, even though they'd looked dead, they were the most resilient trees." Rum follows the acclaimed A Woman Is No Man (2019) with a deeply resonant tale of multigenerational trauma and survival.

      COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • BookPage
      Yara is a young wife, mother of two girls, a teacher and graphic designer at a North Carolina college, and one day she comes to a startling conclusion: “Everything in her life had been a succession of things that she hadn’t really wanted to do.” Following her bestselling 2019 debut, A Woman Is No Man, Etaf Rum returns with an introspective second novel, Evil Eye. Both books tell universally appealing, tightly focused stories about Palestinian American women and explore multigenerational issues of inherited trauma, misogyny, the difficulty of balancing career and motherhood, and what makes a fulfilling marriage and a well-lived life. The daughter of extraordinarily protective Palestinian immigrants, Yara had a sheltered childhood in Brooklyn and often watched longingly through a window as her brothers were allowed to do whatever they pleased. Now, living in a North Carolina college town with her workaholic husband, Yara realizes she still doesn’t have the freedom she has long craved—to travel, be creative and shape her own life. In the art class that she teaches, she bristles at expectations to “center whiteness as the custodian of high art.” No, Yara thinks, “she had not worked this hard over the years—rushing through her degrees while raising two kids and maintaining a home and standing up to her mother-in-law and trying to succeed in a world that did not value her contributions—so she could stand in front of a classroom and perpetrate the very injustices that had colored her entire life.” “I’m a sheltered artist who grew up in a sheltered world, so I can’t escape the fact that some of the novel is autobiographical.” Read our interview with Etaf Rum. Yara is a volcano waiting to explode, and she finally does, calling out a colleague on their racism in an incredibly well-told scene. There’s immediate fallout, with Yara put on probation and assigned to receive therapy. Rum excels at writing internal dialogue and keeping readers immersed in Yara’s fight for freedom, friendship and, ultimately, a purpose in life. Though resistant to her forced therapy, Yara eventually begins journaling at her therapist’s suggestion, and she finds herself carefully examining not only her life but that of her mother and beloved grandmother, Teti, giving readers an intriguing glimpse of how trauma, aspirations and cultural expectations have shaped each woman, and how political events have ongoing personal ramifications for legions of Palestinian and Palestinian American families. Rum’s observations about the intersections of Arab and Southern traditions and their similarities in art, history, media and food are particularly strong. Yara gradually befriends a gay man, Silas, who lends support as she slowly but boldly becomes the person she yearns to be. Just like A Woman Is No Man, Evil Eye has the power to reach readers of all ages and cultures, who will undoubtedly cheer Yara on as she forges a new path.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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