Books from United States

Across generations of Black Muslim life in America, ten interconnected worlds of faith, family, and belonging unfold. A daughter haunted by her father’s ghost struggles to reconcile his legacy with the truth; a mother caring for her disabled son revisits a life-altering experience; and a federal agent spying on a prominent member of the Nation of Islam confronts the contradictions of his own life. Set against the complex social and spiritual landscape of Black Muslim communities, these stories explore the tension between religious conviction and human imperfection, tradition and independence, and the desire to belong and the need to question. With compassion, subtle humour, and remarkable insight, Temple Folk offers an intimate portrait of people navigating the distance between who they believe they should be and who they really are.

On an ordinary morning in suburban Chicago, a masked gunman storms an Islamic school, forcing principal Afaf Rahman to confront the memories she has spent a lifetime trying to escape. As she guides her students toward safety, her thoughts return to her childhood as the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, her family’s struggles with faith and belonging, and the devastating events that shaped her life. From her father’s growing disillusionment with America to her sister’s rebellion and her own complicated relationship with Islam, Afaf’s story unfolds across decades of love, loss, and searching. Against a backdrop of rising Islamophobia and cultural alienation, The Beauty of Your Face explores what it means to hold on to faith when the world seems determined to turn you into an outsider. Intimate and deeply moving, it is a novel about sisterhood, resilience, and the possibility of finding beauty and belonging in the most unexpected places.

In Kindred, Dana, a young Black writer living in California in 1976, is unexpectedly transported through time to an antebellum Maryland plantation. Each time she arrives in the past, she encounters Rufus Weylin, the white son of a plantation owner whose survival becomes mysteriously linked to her own. As Dana is repeatedly pulled between her modern life and the brutal realities of slavery, she must navigate a world where her freedom and safety are constantly threatened. Her relationship with Rufus grows increasingly complicated as she struggles to protect her ancestors while preserving her own identity and humanity. Blending historical fiction and science fiction, Octavia E. Butler explores slavery, racism, power, and the enduring consequences of historical violence. The novel offers a deeply personal examination of how the past shapes the present and challenges our understanding of freedom, survival, and belonging.