An Unlasting Home
Kuwait

An Unlasting Home

by Mai Al-Nakib

Identity & Belonging Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Fiction 2023

Summary

How do you belong to a country you have spent your life wanting to leave? In Kuwait, philosophy professor Sara faces the threat of execution after being accused of blasphemy for teaching Nietzsche. As she awaits trial, she revisits the lives of the women who shaped her: two grandmothers and two mothers whose stories stretch across Kuwait, Iraq, India, Lebanon, and the United States. Spanning nearly a century of upheaval, migration, and changing social expectations, this sweeping family saga explores the complicated ties between women, their homeland, and the histories they inherit. Can Sara find a place for herself in a world where home can be both a refuge and a prison?

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Country
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About the author
Mai Al-Nakib
Mai Al-Nakib

Mai Al-Nakib is a Kuwaiti writer and academic whose work explores the cultural, political, and personal complexities of life in the Middle East. Born in Kuwait, she spent her early childhood in London, Edinburgh, and St. Louis, Missouri, before returning to Kuwait. She earned a PhD in English literature from Brown University and spent twenty years teaching English and comparative literature at Kuwait University, where her academic interests included feminism, citizenship, and postcolonial studies. Her debut collection, The Hidden Light of Objects (2014), won the Edinburgh International Book Festival’s First Book Award, making it the first short-story collection to receive the prize. Her debut novel, An Unlasting Home (2022), explores generations of women and the tensions between personal freedom, religion, and social expectations in Kuwait. She continues to write fiction and essays, bringing the region’s overlooked personal histories into focus.

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Details
Published
2023
Author
Mai Al-Nakib