Evil Eye: A Novel
An NPR Best Book of the Year · A Time Magazine Most Anticipated Book of the Year
“A moving meditation on motherhood, intergenerational trauma and how surface appearances often obscure a deeper truth. . . . A stunning second novel from a writer who set the bar very high with her first!”—Tara Conklin, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Romantics and Community Board
The acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of A Woman Is No Man returns with a striking exploration of the expectations of a Palestinian-American woman, the meaning of a fulfilling life, and the ways our unresolved pasts affect our presents.
Yara Murad has worked hard to outrun the demons of her tumultuous Brooklyn childhood. Now living far from home, Yara has achieved everything she aspired to: She is highly educated and teaches art to college student. She's also raising two daughters with her businessman husband, Fadi. Her marriage is nothing like her parents' high-conflict relationship, and she knows her life is worlds better and freer than her mother’s.
So why doesn’t it feel that way? Why does Yara experience flashes of anger out of nowhere or a sadness she can’t name? When an incident at the college threatens her job, her mother suggests that a family curse could be to blame. While Yara doesn’t believe in old superstitions, she's shaken as she finds her carefully constructed world beginning to implode. To save herself, Yara must finally confront the childhood she thought she’d left behind and forge her own path forward.
BUY THE BOOK
These clubs recently read this book...
Community Reviews
What’s it about?
A Woman is No Man was Etaf Rum’s first novel and a huge success. She follows that book up with Evil Eye,the story of Yara Murad. Yara Murad is a young wife and mother living in North Carolina. She has worked hard to “become something”. She wants to teach but must be content with doing the college’s graphic design and just teaching one Introduction to Art class. Her life seems like a struggle and she is not sure why. One day she loses her temper with a colleague and is asked to attend counseling. Will this be the answer she is looking for?
What did it make me think about?
What it is to be a woman- especially a woman from a more conservative culture living in America.
Should I read it?
This novel tells the story of a young woman who is trying to juggle two cultures. Although born in Brooklyn, Yara is the daughter of Palestinian immigrants and she has lived a very sheltered life. Etaf Rum has the ability to draw you into her characters lives and make you care. This was an interesting story about how trauma can last for generations.
Quote-
“Each time she tried to articulate these thoughts to William, she stopped, afraid of how meaningless the sentences might sounds. Words simplified situations and emotions, robbed them of their complexity. Could her words portray how powerless she felt, how torn? Never fitting in, unable to truly belong. Or would they convey another message, validating Amanda’s assumptions: How insular her community was, how limiting?”
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.