Author: Sabaa Tahir
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5
Pages: 384
Date Started: 19 April 2022
Date Finished: 23 April 2022
I remember reading about this book sometime around January and it was instantly added to my 'To Read' pile. Unfortunately, I had to wait till it was released!
The story is about Misbah, Noor, and Salahudin (Sal) who live in Juniper, CA. Misbah after a tragic incident moves to America from Pakistan with her loving husband and works in the motel Misbah and her husband Toufiq have bought. Salahudin is the son of Misbah and Toufiq and is in his senior year in high school. Noor lives with her uncle after her entire family was killed in Pakistan and is friends with Sal and Misbah.
Sal tries to save the family motel after the death of Misbah and tries to manage his alcoholic father while trying to stay afloat in his own life. His attempts to save the motel spiral out of control which puts the friendship of Noor and Sal at stake.
Of the handful of characters in the book, my favorite one was Salahudin! He tried to stay true to his words and true to himself too. He also loved his mother dearly and tried to follow the path she wanted him to take. I really liked the composure he showed while dealing with his alcoholic father.
WOW!! That was my exact expression after I read the last page. This is one of the most amazing books I have read! The story was gripping and I had a hard time putting it down. The story about love, loss, forgiveness, and life has been written magnificently. Each character has their part and the author has done justice to their story and the portrayal. There is never a dull moment in the book. I couldn't have been happier with the ending either. After crying my eyes out I was glad that the end was equally strong.
Favorite lines from the book:
"God" he likes to rant, "is a construct for the weak-minded."
I'll survive this. I'll live. But there's a hole in me, never to be filled. Maybe that's why people die of old age. Maybe we could live forever if we didn't love so completely. But we do. And by the time old age comes, we're filled with holes, so many that it's too hard to breathe. So many that our insides aren't even ours anymore. We're just one big empty space, waiting to be filled by the darkness. Waiting to be free.
Standing in the dark of the porch, I watch the stars and think of how I never saw my own parents die. I barely remember them. But today - the funeral, the coffin - reminded me of what death is: final.
I'd forgotten how crying hollows you out, drains away all the shit and leaves everything clearer.
Do not re-enter your home until your guest is on the way to their own.
Nothing kills anger faster than pity, and the hope in my father's voice shoots my rage dead. I've never wanted to lie to anyone more in my life than in that moment. Yes, it's her. She's here.
"The more you ask for," she'd say, "the better. Because it means you've put your faith in something greater than yourself."
She learned that the more you lose, the better get at it. The better you get at it, the less it hurts.
Some things are stronger than instinct. Fear. Habit. Despair.
Do you think our adulthood will make up for everything we've had to deal with as kids?
God is like water, finding the unknowable path when we cannot.
