Against the Loveless World

By: Susan Abulhawa

Narrated by: Susan Abulhawa

Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

Shortlisted for Palestine Book Award.

Bloomsbury presents Against the Loveless World by Susan Abulhawa, read by Susan Abulhawa.

Nahr has been confined to the Cube: nine square metres of glossy grey cinderblock, devoid of time, its patterns of light and dark nothing to do with day and night. Journalists visit her, but get nowhere; because Nahr is not going to share her story with them.

The world outside calls Nahr a terrorist and a whore; some might call her a revolutionary, or a hero. But the truth is, Nahr has always been many things and had many names.

She was a girl who learned, early and painfully, that when you are a second class citizen love is a kind of desperation; she learned, above all else, to survive.

She was a girl who went to Palestine in the wrong shoes and without looking for it found what she had always lacked in the basement of a battered beauty parlour: purpose, politics, friends. She found a dark-eyed man called Bilal, who taught her to resist; who tried to save her when it was already too late.

Nahr sits in the Cube and tells her story to Bilal. Bilal, who isn’t there; Bilal, who may not even be alive, but who is her only reason to get out.

©2020 Susan Abulhawa (P)2020 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Critic reviews

"A thrilling, defiant novel." (Fatima Bhutto)

"A masterpiece." (Marc Lamont Hill)

''Wonderful.... Shines a ray of hope into some very dark places." (Michael Palin)

Fantastic Book

I loved the story and the narration.could not put it down towards the end .

Beautiful book, will forever live in my mind.

I was recommended this book by my dearest friend as my first book of 2023 and my resolution to finish one book a month. This sparked the fire in me to read and listen to books all over again, which I had lost a long time ago due to medical school.
I just want to thank Susan for the characters, the story, her amazing storytelling and lullabying voice, and mostly for her very powerful and true emotions.
I found myself relating to her at the end of the acknowledgments and the whole weight of the events set in and left me in tears.
Every single story told here is immensely important to be heard by everyone. Nahr is one of the best and most complex characters I have ever seen, and every character from Umm Buraq, Sitti Wasfiyyeh, Jihad, Bilal, Mohammad, Mohsen to every other man and woman she encountered has made me discover new things about me and the world around me.
Truly amazing. Perhaps I gave 4 stars to the performance only because I would’ve preferred if she kept the male voices the same as hers, as it felt a little silly to me at times when she thickened her voice.
I would recommend this book to everyone who feels outcasted in this world, and every Palestinian, woman, LGBT+, and surely everyone who would like to open their minds and learn about and live through each of the above’s lives.