THE BEAUTY OF YOUR FACE by Safar Mustafah
The Beauty of Your Face by Safar Mustafah is a compelling and authentic novel that not only explores the complex struggles of a culturally conflicted daughter of Palestinian immigrants, but also touches on universal themes such as identity, loss and the pain of a middle child rejected by her mentally fragile mother. The book follows dual storylines of Afaf , principal of a Muslim school for girls just outside Chicago, opening with the shocking arrival of a xenophobic shooter who kills girls at random. The eventual tense standoff between Afaf and the shooter frames the more in-depth story of her earlier life leading to this point. A bright, intelligent teenager, Afaf negotiates the difficulties of life as the daughter of secularized parents in a town where she faces casual but cruel racism on a daily basis. When a tragic loss causes major family upheaval, she struggles to find a place to belong when she’s spurned by all her classmates and even her own mother who seems to hate her. S