but there is the happiness he promised, too. he loves me without being in love with me and that’s all i can ask of him. i don’t even need to hear him say it to believe it
Estelle Gilson’s new translation of Umberto Saba’s Ernesto goes on sale today. Here’s what some of our favorite writers and critics are saying about it:
“This little miracle of a book tackles the weightiest themes—the unthinking cruelty of youth, the shock of adulthood, the humanizing force of love—with the humor and lightness of touch that are the surest sign of mastery. For all its modesty and charm, the novel’s profound, unassuming beauty has a force and finally a grandeur that come from the source of all great art, what Saba calls ‘the red-hot center of life.’” —Garth Greenwell
“A work of tenderness that doesn’t smudge its complex corners.” —Anakana Schofield
“Umberto Saba’s secret novel Ernestore-creates a boy’s awakening to sexual love with both men and women. It’s a story so fresh, so alive to nuances of feeling and perception, it defies any formulaic understanding of love in Saba’s time or in our own. Estelle Gilson’s translation catches the intimate rhythms of these discoveries.” —Rosanna Warren
In honor of Saba’s poignant coming-of-age novel, we’ll be hosting a couple of speical events:
On April 6, a discussion of Ernesto with Peter Cameron, Benjamin Taylor, Jaime Manrique, and Stefano Albertini will be held at The Bureau of General Services—Queer Division in NYC.
Cover art: Mario Sironi, Portrait of Brother Ettore,1910
attention british bookworms! want to find a way to buy queer books andsupport indie bookshops? then look no further, and check out gay’s the wordandqueer lit - both have shops (in london and manchester respectively) but they also have great online shops - so please consider supporting them if you can!
so in part i here, i focused on recently published contemporary literature/poetry, fantasy, and graphic novels (2017 to present) with muslim main characters i’ve read over the year. now i’m going to turn to young adult and lgbtq muslim fiction. frankly i was impressed by how many books have come out in the last few years alone in these categories. now i wish the quality of the writing was just as amazing (but that’s another story )
these books represent a wide spectrum of the muslim experience. from practicing, non-practicing, or questioning one’s faith, to spanning cultures, nationalities, and ethnic origins from across the globe. and we’re only scratching the surface. without further ado:
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all my rage (2022/sabaa tahir *tw: abuse, addiction) - this book fully wrecked me. it’s so heartbreaking and yet hopeful at the same time. a lovely friends to lovers story of two pakistani american kids living in the mojave desert in california, whose respective families are just trying to live out “the american dream.” p.s. tahir’s “an ember in the ashes” is an awesome fantasy series!
salaam with love (2022/sara sharaf beg*tw: gun violence) - good post ramadan read as it follows a pakistani american teen from a small town who visits relatives in nyc for the entire month of ramadan. it’s a coming of age story but also about the main learning more about the religion and ramadan in general. there’s an unnecessary subplot involving gun violence that took away from the tone mid-story, and the ending was slightly unbelievable, but otherwise a fun read.
misfits in love (2021/s.k. ali) - this is a sequel to saints and misfits but you don’t really need to have read the first one to read this. we follow our egyptian-indian hijabi protagonist at her brother’s wedding and like all weddings, there’s lots of drama (especially boy drama!) this was light-hearted and fun, but also did a good job in addressing intra-muslim racism (especially anti-black racism) and how to cope when it occurs amongst family members.
all american muslim girl (2019/nadine jolie courtney) - despite the cheesy title, i thought this was a fresh take on the muslim teen experience. it’s a coming of age story of a white passing Circassian girl from a non-religious muslim family near atlanta, georgia. in exploring her heritage, racism, and fitting in, she comes to islam and decides to be muslim. so it’s all about her finding her faith and making sense of it all, with some really layered intra-faith explorations amongst her friend group too.
love, hate, and other filters (2018/samira ahmed*tw: terrorism) - okay, this book was a mess. ostensibly a coming of age story about an indian muslim girl living in the midwest us. but it was full of cliches (brown girl pining for the white crush; oppressive indian parents, etc.) structurally, the author drops a mass casualty/terrorism event in the middle of the book, but then picks up with the “romance” like nothing happened. very little grappling with the main’s cultural and religious identity. and the ending is incomprehensible given the 200 pages that came before it.
a very large expanse of sea (2018/tahereh mafi) - a coming of age story set in 2002 (right after 9/11) of a hijabi persian breakdancing teen. i enjoyed the subversion of stereotypes and the realistic depiction of racism and double standards in that time. i could have done with a little less romance but overall the main’s conflicting emotions felt very real.
lgbtq lit (mostly wlw):
note:there aren’t too many books with practicing queer muslim rep yet. most have mains that fall into the category of culturally muslim/raised in a muslim household but marginally practicing or not at all. for practicing rep, in addition to one book below, i would highly recommend watching “we are lady parts” on peacock (wlw hijabi who regularly prays!)
the henna wars (2020/adiba jaigirdar) - wlw high school rivals romance between a bengali girl and brazilian irish classmate in ireland (not exactly enemies to lovers but eh, close enough). so this isn’t the most well-written book, but it was cute. props to an interracial woc couple and complicated sibling dynamics.
hani and ishu’s guide to fake dating (2021/adiba jaigirdar) - fake dating and grumpy/sunshine tropes galore between muslim and hindu (?) bengali high school girls in ireland. kudos for a practicing muslim bisexual co-main! a nice exploration of culture and religion overall with both girls, who are quite well-developed on their own. i just wish we got more of their relationship together which felt the most underdeveloped of the whole novel so i wasn’t as invested in their relationship as i was in them separately. but overall, cute.
the love and lies of rukhsana ali (2019/sabina khan *tw: intense homophobia; sexual assault; death) - okay, i really disliked this book. setting aside the writing style which i did not care for, this book verged on trauma porn for me by taking the kitchen sink of homophobia, misogyny, racism, etc. and throwing it all at this poor bengali girl. yes, life is not all sunshine and roses but this was bleak. and don’t get me started on the ending! the book would have benefitted from sticking with 2-3 topics and exploring them well.
zara hossain is here (2021/sabina khan *tw:islamophobia) - so i liked this better than her first book (love lies of rukhsana ali). but this author still has the propensity of putting her queer characters through harrowing situations so be warned. this novel is about a bisexual pakistani teenager in texas and the racism and islamophobia she and her family face. again i think focusing on a few major themes would have helped focus the storyline.
you exist too much (2020/zaina arafat *tw: addiction) this was a hard book, not only for the subject matter but because the main, a bisexual palestinian woman, is pretty unlikeable. but the writing is honest and there’s something to be said for rooting for a woman to overcome her addictions, tackle her mental health issues, and stop her self-destructive behavior. i also enjoyed the vignettes of self-discovery from her childhood in palestine/jordan.
honorable mention: darius the great is not okay (2018/adib khorram) - this is cheating because the main isn’t muslim; he’s a persian, zoroastrian boy. but this book is so good and really deftly tackles the subject of mental illness, loneliness, family pressures and trying to fit in. it mostly takes place in iran with some gorgeous descriptions of the architecture/mosques in yazd too.
