Book: Jameela Green Ruins Everything by Zarqa Nawaz
Zarqa Nawaz has an uncanny ability to take serious, alarming concepts and infuse them with a sense of humor and lightheartedness.
In her new novel, readers meet Jameela, who has only one life goal: to see her novel hit the New York Times best-seller list. When this doesn’t immediately happen, she travels to her local mosque, ostensibly to make a deal with God. But when she meets imam Ibrahim Sultan, he’s immediately affronted by her self-centeredness and demands that Jameela do a good deed. Her act of charity spirals out of control, and she finds herself at the heart of a plot to infiltrate a terrorist organization. The novel is a brilliant, hilarious, and biting commentary on the American dream and success, and Nawaz, who is also a filmmaker and the creator behind Little Mosque on the Prairie (the first show to illustrate the day-to-day lives of Canadian Muslims), is here to entertain with her latest.
DESCRIPTION
Jameela Green has only one wish: to see her memoir on the New York Times bestseller list. When that doesn’t work out, she decides that her best next step is to make a deal with God, so she heads over to her local mosque. The idealistic new imam, Ibrahim Sultan, is appalled by Jameela’s shallowness but agrees to assist her, on one condition–that she perform a good deed.
Jameela reluctantly accepts his terms, kicking off a series of unfortunate events. The homeless man they try to help gets recruited by a terrorist group, causing federal authorities to become suspicious of Ibrahim. When the imam mysteriously disappears, Jameela is certain that the CIA has captured her new friend for interrogation and possibly torture.
Despite having no talent for this sort of thing, Jameela decides to set off on a one-woman operation to rescue him. Her quest soon lands her at the center of an international plan targeting the leader of the terrorist organization–a scheme that puts Jameela and count-less others, including her hapless husband and clever but disapproving daughter, at risk.
A no-holds-barred satire about the international cost of the American Dream, Jameela Green Ruins Everything is a compulsively readable, darkly comedic, yet unexpectedly touching story of one woman’s search for meaning and connection.
DETAILS
Price: $26.99 $24.83
Publisher: Harper
Publish Date: May 10, 2022
Pages: 288
Dimensions: 6.2 X 8.8 X 1.1 inches | 1.0 pounds
Language: English
Type: Hardcover
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