Against the Loveless World was emotionally profound. It was a moving story about home, family, and love. I fell into the experience of listening to this audiobook and could not stop thinking about it. Keep reading this book review of Against the Loveless World for my full thoughts.
Summary
As Nahr sits, locked away in solitary confinement, she spends her days reflecting on the dramatic events that landed her in prison in a country she barely knows. Born in Kuwait in the 70s to Palestinian refugees, she dreamed of falling in love with the perfect man, raising children, and possibly opening her own beauty salon. Instead, the man she thinks she loves jilts her after a brief marriage, her family teeters on the brink of poverty, she’s forced to prostitute herself, and the US invasion of Iraq makes her a refugee, as her parents had been. After trekking through another temporary home in Jordan, she lands in Palestine, where she finally makes a home, falls in love, and her destiny unfolds under Israeli occupation.
Review
Against the Loveless World is breath taking in its emotional spectrum. We follow Nahr through choices made for family, for love, for home, and for survival. It’s moving and captivating. At times introspective, Against the Loveless World is about resistance. It’s about the resistance in the everyday, in survival, in love, and in action. There were so many ways my heart broke while listening to the audiobook whether it be the expectations we have of love, the sacrifices Nahr makes for her brother, or the friendships she makes along the way. It’s particularly special because the author actually narrates this book.
Because of that, I think we get this unique emotional connection to Nahr, to the feelings and doubt she feels. If you listen to audiobooks, this is one you have to listen to. Against the Loveless World examines Nahr, but also her family as they flee, negotiate their relationship to Palestine, and the relativity of loyalty and allegiances overnight. It explores how it feels to be alone, to be stranded, to be supported, and to be loved. Stolen homes, insidious tactics and explicit violence, and the control of movement and identity.
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Powerful from start to finish, I only ended up loving Against the Loveless World more as I continued to listen. Find Against the Loveless World on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, Blackwells, Libro.fm, and Google Play.