Against the Loveless World - Susan Abulhawa

“Against the Loveless World” by Susan Abulhawa is the story of the woman with three names: Yaqoot, Almas and Nahr. Each name embodying what seems to be a lifetime.

At the beginning of the story, Nahr recounts her life from an Israeli prison. The reasons as to why Nahr is imprisoned, unfold with each page.

We are taken from Kuwait, to Jordan, to Palestine and back to Jordan again. Each country representing a different part of a woman who is merely yearning to exist, as she is, in a world that just won’t have her.

Outspoken, beautiful, tough Nahr knows what she wants in life - or so she thinks- and finds herself trapped into a loveless marriage. Her husband eventually walks out on her, leaving her with nothing but shame to her name and a society who wonders about the woman who couldn’t keep her man. From that moment Nahr gives up on society altogether and meets Um Buraq. A meeting that seals her fate as what some would call a prostitute. Struggling to pay for her brother’s education, Nahr sacrifices herself for the happiness of those she loves the most. Yet, her story is not only the story of the marginalized, it is also the story of a woman who yearns to be independent and to make her own decisions in a heavily patriarchal society. A decision that surely leaves its permanent scars.

With the occupation of Iraq, then the Americans, Nahr is uprooted from her life and exiled to Jordan. Here, she contemplates her life and decisions. Urged by her family to finally finalize her divorce from the man who could not love her, she finds herself traveling to Palestine; and the land she could barely remember nor feel any connection to, turns out to be the land that restores her to herself.

Here, through friendship, the love of her mother-in-law, sisterhood and the love of the rebel Bilal, Nahr learns to accept her many identities and finds a way to reconcile the three women into the woman she has become. And this is the just the beginning of her story.

This is a story of exile, brutality, womanhood, sisterhood, friendship, resilience, rebellion and, ultimately, love.

Hats off to Susan Abulhawa, for creating stories we are morally obligated to share.