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kastrel's review against another edition
4.0
This is an absolutely fantastic collection of short stories, essays, short plays, and poetry by female British muslim writers. They are set all over the globe, from London to Palestine to Algeria to Cairo. I hadn't heard of the collection, or any of the authors before, but was prompted to read it by Emma Watson's virtual feminist book club, Our Shared Shelf, and I'm very glad I did.
Fiction highlights for me included [a:Kamila Shamsie|168076|Kamila Shamsie|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1264510720p2/168076.jpg]'s The Girl Next Door, about a makeup artist in Pakistan struggling with being a modern woman who is also strongly Muslim, running into an old acquaintance who has become famous. Probably my absolute favourite was the editor, [a:Sabrina Mahfouz|7788151|Sabrina Mahfouz|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]'s short play Battleface, about a British-Iraqi cosmetic surgeon being offered a job by MI6 to spy on important women in Baghdad while giving them Botox. [a:Selma Dabbagh|4954664|Selma Dabbagh|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1342075384p2/4954664.jpg]'s two short stories about life in Palestine are poignant and impeccably written.
The few non-fiction essays are varied and hard-hitting, including [a:Shaista Aziz|18757314|Shaista Aziz|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] on Pakistani "honour killings", Miss L's (author of the Twitter and Tumblr @castingcallwoe) on being a British Muslim actress. [a:Aisha Mirza|7824043|Aisha Mirza|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1392941149p2/7824043.jpg], writing on Brexit, was a tiny snapshot of the microaggressions (and full-on aggressions) faced by Muslims in the aftermath of the referendum, a sadly necessary essay reminiscent of [b:Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race|33606119|Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race|Reni Eddo-Lodge|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1497293578s/33606119.jpg|54425062]. Most interesting of them to me was [a:Ahdaf Soueif|51563|Ahdaf Soueif|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1264272759p2/51563.jpg]'s take on US-Arab relations and their connection to Israel. I am woefully ignorant of any history of the Middle-East, and this was well explained and powerfully written.
The poetry was interesting (I'm not a connoisseur by any means) although I felt it lost out through not being seen performed. I got the feeling that a lot of these (predominantly very young) poets were writing poetry that would be better on a stage than in a book. But it added an extra dimension to the collection.
I fully recommend this book, and will be taking the opportunity to add other publications by many of the authors to my to-read list.
Fiction highlights for me included [a:Kamila Shamsie|168076|Kamila Shamsie|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1264510720p2/168076.jpg]'s The Girl Next Door, about a makeup artist in Pakistan struggling with being a modern woman who is also strongly Muslim, running into an old acquaintance who has become famous. Probably my absolute favourite was the editor, [a:Sabrina Mahfouz|7788151|Sabrina Mahfouz|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]'s short play Battleface, about a British-Iraqi cosmetic surgeon being offered a job by MI6 to spy on important women in Baghdad while giving them Botox. [a:Selma Dabbagh|4954664|Selma Dabbagh|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1342075384p2/4954664.jpg]'s two short stories about life in Palestine are poignant and impeccably written.
The few non-fiction essays are varied and hard-hitting, including [a:Shaista Aziz|18757314|Shaista Aziz|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] on Pakistani "honour killings", Miss L's (author of the Twitter and Tumblr @castingcallwoe) on being a British Muslim actress. [a:Aisha Mirza|7824043|Aisha Mirza|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1392941149p2/7824043.jpg], writing on Brexit, was a tiny snapshot of the microaggressions (and full-on aggressions) faced by Muslims in the aftermath of the referendum, a sadly necessary essay reminiscent of [b:Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race|33606119|Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race|Reni Eddo-Lodge|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1497293578s/33606119.jpg|54425062]. Most interesting of them to me was [a:Ahdaf Soueif|51563|Ahdaf Soueif|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1264272759p2/51563.jpg]'s take on US-Arab relations and their connection to Israel. I am woefully ignorant of any history of the Middle-East, and this was well explained and powerfully written.
The poetry was interesting (I'm not a connoisseur by any means) although I felt it lost out through not being seen performed. I got the feeling that a lot of these (predominantly very young) poets were writing poetry that would be better on a stage than in a book. But it added an extra dimension to the collection.
I fully recommend this book, and will be taking the opportunity to add other publications by many of the authors to my to-read list.
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