The Beauty of Your Face by Sahar Mustafah : A Review
TW: Islamophobia, Suicide, Depression, Alcohol addiction, Terrorism, Descriptive hate crime details I have written this review multiple times and erased it. Simply because it is not easy to categorise a book which is this beautiful yet the most heartbreaking one I have read. It maps the story of Afaf, a Palestine-American, who finds her footing in this strange land where it was already tough managing being an “outsider” as a kid but post 9/11 it became a crime to be an outsider and specifically Muslim. Don’t get me wrong this book is not at all fixated on just that, in its essence it is a story of a family of five finding oneself amidst the heavy influence of this world we live in. It is the story of a young girl who lost her sister to society pressure, her mother and father to various diseases, and herself too. The story begins with Afaf going through her usual day when a terrorist arrives. Albeit very little is described about this situation, the description of it is quite disturbing...
