Between Two Moons (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780385548618)

Set in the Arab immigrant enclave of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, following three siblings coming of age over the course of one Ramadan, "a moving look at family, survival, and celebration" (Hanif Abdurraqib, author of A Little Devil in America).

"A gorgeously written and profoundly intimate debut." --Etaf Rum, author of New York Times bestseller A Woman Is No Man

It's the holy month of Ramadan, and twin sisters Amira and Lina are about to graduate high school in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. On the precipice of adulthood, they plan to embark on a summer of teenage revelry, trying on new identities and testing the limits of what they can get away with while still under their parents' roof. But the twins' expectations of a summer of freedom collide with their older brother's return from prison, whose mysterious behavior threatens to undo the delicate family balance.

Meanwhile, outside the family's apartment, a storm is brewing in Bay Ridge. A raid on a local business sparks a protest that brings the Arab community together, and a senseless act of violence threatens to tear them apart. Everyone's motives are called into question as an alarming sense of disquiet pervades the neighborhood. With everything spiraling out of control, how will Amira and Lina know who they can trust?

A gorgeously written, intimate family story and a polyphonic portrait of life under the specter of Islamophobia, Between Two Moons challenges the reader to interrogate their own assumptions, asking questions of allegiance to faith, family, and community, and what it means to be a young Muslim in America.

Author: Aisha Abdel Gawad
ISBN-10: 0385548613
ISBN-13: 9780385548618
Publisher: Doubleday Books
Language: English
Published: 06/06/2023
Pages: 336
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.30lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.40w x 1.30d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 01/01/2023 pg. 3
Publishers Weekly 04/10/2023
Kirkus Reviews 04/15/2023
Booklist 05/15/2023 pg. 16
BookPage 06/01/2023

About the Author
AISHA ABDEL GAWAD has been published in The Kenyon Review, American Short Fiction, and the scholarly journal The Muslim World in a special issue on Anglophone Muslim women writers. She won a 2015 Pushcart Prize for her short story "Waking Luna." After graduating college, Aisha worked at the Arab American Association of New York, a community center and social services agency serving the immigrant community in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. She is currently a high school English teacher in Connecticut.