A beautifully written, emotive story which should be required reading.
We begin with Afaf during a terrifying attack on her school for young Muslim girls in the US, and the story then moves backwards and forwards charting the disappearance of her older sister when she was a young girl, and the impact this had on her family.
This is a wonderful story of a young girl searching for her identity in a country that doesn’t always accept her, with a mother who doesn’t support her and a father who is her whole world but has many of his own issues. We see her faith and belief in herself grow to the point where she can stand face to face with a terrorist without cowering, and it is an emotional journey to get to that point. I found myself feeling heartbroken for the way she is treated in the aftermath of 9/11, and I think this should be mandatory reading for anyone lacking empathy for people of different cultures or religions.
A poignant read, full of heart, that I didn’t want to end.

Wow. What a book!  At times, this book was heavy, it could also be shocking, inspiring and a tear-jerker too! Not only is the cover gorgeous, so is the author and her writing style. 
Mustafah’s writing style was effortlessly beautiful. I love that the structure hovered between the past and present. It was heart-warming that we could watch Afaf grow up from a charming young girl to a loving married woman. 

The Beauty of Your Face challenges the endemic of negative views against Muslims. It shows the struggles of a Muslim woman living in the western world. Afaf becomes a head teacher at a local Muslim school for girls, when the school is targeted by a school shooter, the storyline is poignant because it is a threat and sometimes reality for the Muslim community. There are many controversial topics in this novel, guns being one of them. Living in the UK, the concept of guns being so widely available in America is asinine and scary to me. This novel also reflects how badly America needs more restrictions on guns. A white school shooter walking into a Muslim school who isn’t questioned by security because you guessed it- white privilege.  

The constant xenophobia targeted at Afaf broke me. As someone who is white and non-religious, it reinforces how much privilege I have. I will never be ridiculed for my race or religion. This tells a common narrative of women being targeted for their burqa’s and the inhumane and misguided stereotypes of Muslims as terrorists after 9/11 in the Western world. Muslim schools and mosques have always been targeted by white communities because of the differences in our cultures, which is a terrible excuse. The awful thing about this story is that it is a genuine threat in the world. I hope people read this book and feel united against prejudice. We should all do more to support our local Muslim communities and protect them from xenophobic actions. 
 
 
A huge thank you to the wonderful Sahar Mustafah who I have had the pleasure of conversing with recently about the effect this book has had on me, as well as Legend Press (one of my favourite publishers) and Netgalley. 
 
 
My full review will be up this week!

Afaf Rahman, the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, is the principal of the Muslim Nurrideen School for Girls when a shooter attacks. Interspersed with this plot are many flashbacks to Afaf’s growing up in the suburbs of Chicago. Hers is not an easy childhood or adolescence; she is an outcast at school and finds little solace at home because her family is shattered after a tragic event. Much of her life is spent trying to find her identity and acceptance.

The novel addresses the challenges of being a Muslim in the United States. Though the family is not religious, they encounter discrimination regularly. Afaf “tried hard her whole life to be like amarkan, only to be rejected and used.” After 9/11, Muslims went “from towel-heads to terrorists” and Afaf is concerned about her safety and that of her family. Of course the attack on the school emphasizes the dangers Muslims face.

In many ways, the book is a journey of self-discovery. Afaf is largely estranged from her family after a tragedy. Her father finds solace in alcohol. Her unhappy mother, who has never adapted to life in America and wants to return to Palestine, suffers from mental health problems and seems unable to connect with Afaf. Because she is not accepted by her peers at school, she desperately longs for love and attention. After a traumatic near-death accident, Baba finds comfort in Islam and he urges his children to go with him to the Islamic Community Center. There Afaf finds acceptance. “a sense of community; the first time, really, she’d felt she truly belonged anywhere.”

Included in the novel are many details about Arab culture and the Islamic faith. Arabic food is often mentioned; I wish there were an appendix with recipes for the various dishes that are mentioned but not explained, dishes like “mahshi koosa” and “maklooba” and “chicken musakhan” and “fatayir”. I knew about the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca to fulfill one of the sacred pillars of Islam, but I was unaware of the various rituals performed, other than walking around the Kaaba.

At one point Afaf decides she will wear a hijab. From a woman’s perspective, I found her decision an interesting one. “Beneath the hijab, it’s still her. And yet a great deal of Afaf is gone, hidden, never to be revealed again in public, and then only in the presence of women. A pang of something tragically permanent goes through her gut.” She realizes the hijab comes with a price: “Is this concealment a high price to pay for her submission to God? She’ll no longer feel the Illinois winter rushing through her hair, tingling her ears as she leaves the apartment. Or the sun beating down on her head when she goes for walks with Baba along the waterfront, her scalp warm and moist with sweat. Afaf will miss her hair, the way it completes her face.” She is also aware of how Americans will think: “And what of her hijab? Do they imagine Afaf’s father or brother, swarthy and dangerous men, had forced it on her? Behind her back do they whisper, Poor Afaf, another oppressed Arabian woman?"

There are two elements in the novel which left me unsatisfied. One is Nada’s storyline. Nada, Afaf’s older sister, deals with the family situation differently than Afaf, but her story is not sufficiently developed. The other weak element is the perspective of the shooter. He seems little more than a stock character: a white man radicalized by online alt-right sites.

This is a timely novel which offers an interesting perspective, a perspective that might give people pause to think.

Note: I received a digital galley from the publisher via NetGalley.

Sahar Mustafah’s debut novel is an engaging and layered portrait of a Palestinian-American woman’s journey through life and discovery of who she is through faith and family. Although the action of the novel begins with the startling event of a school shooting at the Nurrideen School for Girls, A Muslim school for girls run by Afaf Rahman, the heart of the story is Afaf’s history growing up in the suburbs of Chicago with the immigrant parents. The book explores many themes through the lens of the family, including bigotry, inter-generational conflict exacerbated by cultural and religious conflict, immigration, Islam, etc. Afaf’s story is bittersweet and wrought with tensions and breakthroughs. Much of the book centers on her childhood memories, marred by conflict between her parents and the disappearance of her sister. As Afaf matures, she finds solace in faith, work, and the family she grows – it is this aspect of the book that is a bit thin, I wanted to know more of Afaf’s transition from the confused teen to the centered woman we see at the start of the book.

Mustafah’s writing is beautiful most of the story. The book packs so many emotional wallops throughout that, at times, it feels too heavy handed. Overall, though, it is an engaging and intimate of one woman’s journey through life.

Thank you to netgalley and Legend Press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I loved loved loved this book! I was completely drawn in to Afaf’s story and I loved learning about her family’s experience as Palestinian American Immigrants. When Afaf chooses to embrace Islam and to start wearing a hijab, the way she is treated in public shortly after 9/11 just broke my heart.

I loved this coming of age story and watching Afaf become a wife and a mother who finds comfort in her religion and community after having difficult experiences as a child was just beautiful. Her journey to Islam almost saved her and helped her to change the direction of her life. The way this was depicted was completely heartwarming and whilst not being religious myself I am so glad that people can find such security and comfort in their relationships with religion.

The separate storyline of the shooting at the Muslim school for girls was both shocking and upsetting, even more so because it’s such a reality and a sad threat for many in this world.

I loved learning about a different culture and I know that this book will stay with me for a long time. This book has been released TODAY in paperback and I can not recommend it enough.

Thank you to @netgalley and @legendpress for the advance copy of this book.

The Beauty of Your Face is the debut novel of prize-winning short-story writer Sahar Mustafah. It describes a brutal shooting at a Muslim school in the Chicago suburbs – the Nurrideen School for Girls – a tragic event which climaxes with a tense confrontation between the alt-right shooter and the school’s principal Afaf Rahman.

The story of the shooting, presented over a series of short chapters spread throughout the novel, provides a frame for a much more interesting narrative – an account of Afaf’s life and what led her to her current place in life. We learn of her upbringing in the 1970s as the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, we witness the casual racism she has to face on a daily basis when growing up, the loss of her bearings during her adolescence and youth, and her eventual return to Islam (including her decision to start wearing a hijab) in the footsteps of her father, a “born-again” Muslim. Some of the more poignant chapters describe the widespread mistrust and harassment which the protagonists face in the aftermath of 9/11, and their pain at being branded not only as “different” but as “terrorists” simply because of their religious practices and the colour of their skin.

From a purely literary perspective, the novel is hardly groundbreaking. There are no technical shenanigans and no formal experiments. However, it is still a significant book because it presents us with a perspective with which many readers might be unfamiliar – that of an intelligent, contemporary Palestinian-American woman, who is also a devout, committed Muslim. Afaf’s story is told in flowing, limpid, unfussy prose but there is much attention to detail which helps to convey a vibrant picture of Arab culture.

Although hardly a “theological” book (there is little talk of God or of religious dogma), issues of faith and belief loom large in The Beauty of Your Face. As a Catholic who sometimes reads novels with religious themes, I feel that many contemporary Christian novels – especially when meant for “mainstream” readership – tend to deal mainly with doubt, loss of faith or the darker aspects of religion. There is nothing wrong with that, of course, as these are part of the spiritual experience. Yet, I found it refreshing to read a novel which, overall, projects a much more positive view of religious practice. Although in our secular times “organised religion” is often a term of suspicion (even amongst a wide cross-section of believers), this novel shows how “organised religion” can act as a force for good, if anything by providing the support of community, nurturing identity and belonging, and giving certain individuals (as in the case of Afaf and her father) a sense of direction in life. I found this a very uplifting theme, and one which I could connect with even if I do not share the protagonists’ beliefs and life-choices.

The Beauty of Your Face tackles big ideas, but ultimately, what is most engaging about it is the fact that it is also a very intimate family drama, about characters who try to find love and meaning even in distressing circumstances. Sahar Mustafah is herself the daughter of Palestinian immigrants to the US, and the story she tells brims with authenticity.

Through beautiful story telling and characterisation Sahar Mustafah writes a thought-provoking and actually quite unnerving novel, all too close to the world we are living in.
...
Through the character of Afaf, a Palestinian American, Mustafah explores how the Hijab can give a sense of comfort and belonging for the wearer, but draw mocking, hatred and fear from others. It explores pre and post 9/11, the worsening of pre-existing prejudice and just how dangerous it can be.
...
Mustafah’s writing grabs you from the first page, moving immediately into dialogue and continues at pace throughout. Starting with the present, she then jumps to Afaf’s childhood, progressing through time to explain how Afaf reaches the present with the two stories then merging together. Her writing is uncomplicated, and gentle...warmingly inviting the reader into Afaf’s life .
...
My only criticism is that one particular aspect of Afaf’s life, her career choice, could’ve been explored just a little more, and through jumping through larger periods of time I think an opportunity was missed to explore this particular period.
...
Thank you to @legendpress and @netgalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this free e-book in exchange for honest feedback. I throughly enjoyed this book, and would highly recommend...this book deserves to be read and shared!!!!
...

Sahar Mustafah's debut novel, The Beauty of Your Face is a poignant story of how faith changes lives and communities. We follow Afaf's life, from childhood in a Palestinian immigrant home in Chicago, to a discovery of deep and abiding faith in adulthood. As her journey to religion unfolds, the story is interspersed with scenes from the day a white supremacist gunman enters the Muslim school for girls where Afaf is principal.

Careening from one family crisis to the next, spanning the 1970s to the early 2000s, the scenes of the school shooting are almost lost among the constant roiling tragedy. Mostly fleshed out, I only wish the book had the chance to more deeply explore how the Nurrideen School had come to exist - it briefly mentions community strife, which I think would have better informed the reader's understanding of the gunman's motives - and the aftermath of how a school heals from such an unthinkable loss. But I appreciated that the story was told from Afaf's perspective, centering the Muslim community of Tempest rather than the white opponents to their faith, or the gunman who wreaks havoc on them.

Reckoning with the fragility of family, and the power of finding a community that lends meaning to your life - I think this is a great story for readers who recently loved A Woman Is No Man, Dear Edward, and perhaps even There, There for their sharply realistic examination of modern tragedy, the human condition, and life after loss. I rate it 4.00/A.

The Beauty of Your Face is an emotional, heart-wrenching and thought-provoking account of a Palestinian American woman against the backdrop of loss, loneliness, love, prejudice, and violence. It is a tale of a family torn apart by grief, a story of depression, and an insight into the bigotry faced by people of varying ethnicities in the US.

A large part of the book is a coming of age novel of the main character - Afaf. With the sudden disappearance of her elder sister, her family is torn by grief, and slowly comes apart as her father succumbs to alcohol and her mother to depression. Struggling with her identity and loneliness, Afaf, along with her father, eventually find solace in religion. While this 'self-discovery through spirituality' might sound hollow when summarized like this, it is in fact, very realistic and understandable when read in the book and a very important aspect of the novel.

Afaf's family has not been big on religion ever, and this coupled with the prejudice she faces as a woman of Palestinian descent results in her having a lost sense of identity and practically no support system. Religion gives her that community, a safety blanket when faced with the difficulties of life, a way of re-connecting with her father and with her culture. The portrayal of Islam as an exceedingly tolerant, generous and understanding religion is also imperative to the narrative, to dispel the general notion of it being a religion of hate and radicalism.

I loved that the book also presents the PoV of the shooter, portraying him as a person who is caught up in the clouds of hatred and bigotry brewing on the internet. I'd have loved to know more of his background and why he took such a drastic step, but I don't mind that the author left it open to interpretation. Afaf's experiences and her dialogue with the shooter will definitely leave the readers with some glaring questions on how we analyse and make assumptions about others based on their appearances.

Just when you think the genre of school shooting novels has nothing more to say (other than the obvious....stop allowing individuals to own weapons) a novel comes along that adds to the discussion.
The novel centres around a central character, Afaf. Told in the present day, during a school shooting at the all girls Islamic high school that Afaf is principle of and also told from Afaf’s point of view as a child, teen and young adult growing up in the USA. I loved that Mustafah chose to bring the idea of faith and especially that of Muslim faith into the novel in gradually and after we had ‘met’ the characters as secular figures enmeshed in typical American customs and habits. Afaf grows up feeling alien in her own family so it is fascinating to see how she finds her hijab both unifying and bringing her a desperately wanted sense of family but also further alienating her. This time from her non Muslim community.
I knew that Muslims faced a terrible time after 9/11 as they did here in the UK post 7/7 but until you experience it through the eyes of someone who has witnessed it (and I’m sadly guessing that Mustafah wrote the novel from a personal viewpoint) you don’t realise quite how insidious it is.
I loved the change in Afaf’s fortunes as she aged and became a teacher, then married especially. I had become so attached to her that I really felt she deserved it.
I do agree with a previous reviewer who said that she thought the school shooter’s background was unnecessary, especially as it was rather predictable and one dimensional. As I read it didn’t bother me unduly but as soon as I considered the reviewer’s idea I was struck by how much more powerful the novel could have been if all we’d known about him had been his actions and reactions on the day and in the epilogue.
I can’t wait for this author to write more!

'The Beauty of Your Face' shines a light on many issues which plague contemporary America including horrific racism , prejudice and abuse towards Muslims, gun laws which make school shootings an all too common occurrence and failures in the justice system. It is a complex tapestry, structured with two plot lines throughout. First is a school shooting taking place at Nurrideen School for Muslim girls. The second takes up the bulk of the text, flashing the reader through the Afaf's life (she is the school's Principal in the present) and her turbulent upbringing.

The main enjoyment of this book for me stemmed from Afaf's story. After her parents move to America from Palestine, we see their struggles to fit into the new culture and language whilst bringing up three children. Mustafah has done a great job at composing an emotionally bumpy journey where the reader becomes Afaf's cheerleader, tirelessly wanting the best for her character. The mental, emotional and physical toll the events of the past have had on each member of the family are huge but Mustafah does not shy away from exposing the reality of feeling like an outsider in the country of your birth. The community Afaf and her father find in religion is beautiful and the book spends a long time unpicking misconceptions, bringing the love and joy of Islam to the forefront, daring anyone to hold any prejudicial views after witnessing this narrative.

Where this books falls down is the school shooting storyline. Too much time is spent delving into the shooter's backstory. Whereas Afaf's portions of the book have emotional depth, the shooter's stays very surface level, his motivations a bit too simple and predictable. Staying out of his head and keeping focus on Afaf and her community would move this book to a more accomplished place.

Overall, I have given 3.5 stars rounded up (4 stars for Afaf's story and 3 for the other sections). An interesting book which I am grateful to have had the opportunity to read. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Beauty of Your Face is a novel about a Palestinian American woman's struggles with her family and living in America, told simultaneously in the present day of a school shooting and through her memories of her life up until that point. Afaf is the principal of Nurrideen School for Girls, a Muslim school in Chicago that one morning is attacked by a white male shooter. She was praying in the old confessional at the time, and as she listens to what is happening outside her hiding place, the novel tells her life story, from her parents' troubled lives as Palestinian immigrants to the community she finds in Islam.

Most of the narrative is taken up with Afaf's earlier life, with the shooter situation bookending sections as time jumps forward. This works well as a dual narrative, though much of the present narrative in these middle parts was unexpectedly focused on the shooter rather than Afaf's perspective. Doing this shows how the online alt-right influenced him, but is perhaps a surprise jump when the narrative was just looking at Afaf's memories and emotions. The story of Afaf's family is told well, as complex characters look to survival and forgiveness, and displays how family doesn't mean you necessarily see eye to eye, especially around religion and what brings solace. The novel looks deeply at America and how communities need to be forged and connected to allow for understanding, both within and across groups and divides.

A powerful novel that draws you into the lives of its characters, The Beauty of Your Face is about a school shooter, but also and perhaps more notably, it is about looking for belonging and understanding, within your own family and beyond. The exploration of Islamophobia in America is incisive and shows how it has changed over time, but always affects people's lives in deep and terrible ways.

The book follows the exceptional journey of Afaf from her childhood into her adulthood. It's a story of hope, finding solace and survival that draws the reader in from the very first page till the end. The author weaves a tale that address a range of issues and themes, inclduing racism and in a manner that is sensitive yet thought provoking. I would recommend everyone to read this book at least once.
Thank you Sahar Mustafah and #NetGalley.

The Beauty of Your Face is beautifully written and engaging.

"Be merciful to others and you will receive mercy"

The Beauty of Your Face is about Afaf, who is a daughter of Palestinian immigrant and the principal of a Muslim girls school in the Chicago Suburbs. We follow Afaf and her family from 1976 up until present day, dipping in and out of time periods (1976,1985, 1993 and 2002) to current day during
a radical alt right school shooting.

As we walk through the life of Afaf we get to know her family and follow her journey to finding solace within the Islamic community. This novel was extremely powerful and covered a huge range of topics and themes, the most interesting themes in my opinion being mental illness, community and family. Mustafah illustrated the struggle of being a Muslim woman in America eloquently and explored the expectations that come both from within your community and outside. This novel addressed racism and religious discrimination in all its forms, especially some of the more covert discrimination. I truly felt invested in each character in this novel and I loved Baba's insightful wisdom.

I highly recommend! I also I cannot believe this is Mustafah's first novel. WOW!

Thank you to Legend Press, Sahar Mustafah and NetGalley for an early copy of The Beauty of Your Face.

The Beauty of Your Face is a wonderfully written novel about the life of Afaf Rahman. Afaf is the daughter of Palestinian immigrants and is also the head teacher of a Muslim all girls in Chicago. The story is told through two main timeslines, Afaf's childhood and her present where she finds herself in a cupboard when a shooter is in her school. The dual timeline provides insight in to Afaf's difficult upbringing and her relationship with religion from an early age through to adulthood.

Mustafah has very beautifully crafted a story that details the day to day lives of first generation Americans as well as the exploration of ever growing and shifting racism and how that impacts individuals, families and communities. I did not want this book to end and I will definitely be looking out for more of Mustafah's work.

4/5 - would highly recommend.

The Beauty of Your Face by Sahar Mustafah is about a Palestinian American family. I found the parts about Afaf’s difficult childhood drew me in much more than the parts that focus on a shooting at the school where the adult Afaf now works.