Sisters in Arms
Translated by Ruth Martin
Overview
An explosive feminist and anti-racist novel about the importance of friendship.
We don’t exist in this world. Here, we are neither Germans nor refugees, we don’t report the news and we aren’t the experts. We’re some sort of wildcard.
Hani, Kasih, and Saya have shared a deep friendship ever since they were kids. After years apart, the three young women meet again for a few days, to pick up where they left off. But regardless of what they have achieved, it becomes clear, again and again, that they can’t escape the racism that accompanies their daily lives: the glances, the chatter, the hatred, and the outright rightwing terror. But their friendship gives them stability. Until one dramatic night shakes everything up.
Sisters in Arms is a provocative, uncompromising, and moving novel about the extraordinary alliance between three young women and the only thing that makes a self-determined life possible in a society that doesn’t tolerate otherness: unconditional friendship.
Details
- Format
- Size
- Extent
- ISBN
- RRP
- Pub date
- Paperback
- 198mm x 129mm
- 288 pages
- 9781915590206
- GBP£9.99
- 12 October 2023
Categories
Praise
‘[W]ill appeal to fans of Elena Ferrante, Zadie Smith, and Kamila Shamsie … An immersive and thought-provoking read with a strong plot and relatable characters, and which explores urgent contemporary questions around racism and sexism in society.’
‘This worthy novel about immigration and racism in contemporary Germany is tough going. Bazyar is astute in her depiction of a contemporary climate that explicitly “others” migrants.’
About the Author
Shida Bazyar, born in 1988, studied writing in Hildesheim, and, in addition to writing, worked in youth education for many years. She is the author of The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran — which has won the Blogger Literary Award, Ulla Hahn Prize, and Uwe Johnson Prize, among others, and has been translated into Dutch, Farsi, French, and Turkish — and Sisters in Arms.
Translator
Ruth Martin studied English literature before gaining a PhD in German. She has been translating fiction and nonfiction books since 2010, by authors ranging from Joseph Roth and Hannah Arendt to Volker Weidermann and Shida Bazyar. She has taught translation at the University of Kent and the Bristol Translates summer school, and is a former co-chair of the Society of Authors Translators Association.