Description

WINNER OF THE JHALAK PROSE PRIZE 2025
WINNER OF THE GUILD OF FOOD WRITERS AWARD 2025
WINNER OF THE RSL GILES ST AUBYN AWARD FOR NON-FICTION 2022

‘Essential’ GUARDIAN
‘A masterful tapestry’ ERICA BERRY
‘Raw and dazzling’ FOREWORD

N.S. Nuseibeh’s ancestor was none other than the legendary Nusayba bint Ka’ab al Khazrajia who fought alongside the Prophet Muhammad at the dawn of Islam. In Namesake, Nuseibeh draws on Nusayba’s stories, comparing her experience as an Arab woman today to the distant past, to discover what courage looks like in the context of interminable conflict.

Intimate and thoughtful, these linked essays offer a remarkable exploration of heritage, gender and the idea of home, and demonstrate how connecting with our history can help us understand ourselves and others today.

Publisher Review

At once vulnerable and intellectually rigorous, here is an illuminating and trenchant exploration of Muslim feminism . . . An essential read in the war against lazy stereotypes, cultural annihilation and every form of apartheid — DINA NAYERI * * Guardian * * A wonderful book about the deep backstories and the tangled histories of N. S. Nuseibeh’s own multiple identit[ies]. She is self-deprecating and thoughtful and always interesting, a rare instance of a writer who seems to listen as much as she informs — MARK HADDON Witty, thoughtful, unforgettable essays on life as a Palestinian woman — NOREEN MASUD A wonderfully inventive blend of personal insight and contemporary commentary with Islamic history, myth and culture . . . Intuitive and profound * * Big Issue * * A raw and dazzling essay collection about identity and how the personal is inseparable from the general * * Foreword * * A refreshing, timely read at a time dominated by anger and despair . . . [Nuseibeh] unapologetically considers her own life’s struggle as enmeshed in structural violence, rightly placing the individual within a political context * * Middle East Eye * * A thoughtful, insightful, recommended collection of essays on Palestinian experiences that connects history with contemporary societies . . . Nuseibeh dispels common stereotypes that many Westerners have about Palestinians, especially Palestinian women * * Library Journal * * N.S. Nuseibeh conjures her diverse identities and interests to create a world that is free and hospitable . . . Namesake explores vulnerability, fragility, anxiety and ambivalence as ways of beautifully coming to terms with the wounds and worries of the world — HOMI K. BHABHA Namesake is a brilliantly written book that will enrich how you think about feminism, identity, connection and home. A collection of fascinating and rigorous essays, it’s a generous, intimate invitation to reflect on the different ways we might understand ourselves and one another — OCTAVIA BRIGHT A masterful tapestry . . . Illuminating not only the layers of a physical landscape shaped by empire and colonialism, but of our mental landscapes of myth and story. Probing questions of identity, inheritance, faith, feminism and home — ERICA BERRY