Aria Aber

About

Aria Aber is a German-born Afghan American poet and novelist whose writing explores exile, identity, displacement, and the complexities of belonging. Born and raised in Germany to Afghan refugee parents, she later moved to the United Kingdom before pursuing graduate studies in creative writing in the United States. Her debut poetry collection, Hard Damage (2019), won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize and received a Whiting Award, establishing her as an exciting voice in contemporary poetry. Her work has appeared in prominent literary publications, including The New Yorker, The New Republic, Granta, and The Yale Review. In 2025, she published her debut novel, Good Girl, a coming-of-age story set in Berlin that examines the intersection of cultural inheritance, artistic ambition, desire, and racial tension. Aber has received fellowships from the Wallace Stegner program and other literary institutions. She teaches creative writing at the University of Vermont.

Books on TheBookRoads

All genres Literary Fiction Contemporary Fiction Fiction

All themes Identity & Belonging

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Good Girl

In Berlin’s underground techno scene, nineteen-year-old Nila is searching for freedom, belonging, and a voice of her own. Born in Germany to Afghan refugee parents, she moves between her family’s expectations and the city’s intoxicating nightlife, trying to escape the weight of her past and imagine a different future. When she meets Marlowe, an older American writer whose fading literary fame opens the door to a world of artistic possibility, Nila becomes drawn into a relationship that challenges her independence. Meanwhile, beneath Berlin’s cosmopolitan surface, racism and unresolved historical tensions threaten the fragile worlds she inhabits. Sensual, restless, and deeply perceptive, Good Girl explores the contradictions of growing up between cultures—and the messy, liberating struggle to decide who you want to become.

2025 Germany