Welcome to Litsy!

I was home neither in Rosenwald nor in Gropiusstadt. And like so many children before me, I became my own exile.

At school, the girls wore padded down jackets and boots I had seen only in equestrian ads. They knew how to ride horses and drank expensive water and used Dr. Hauschka products, which felt so expensive back then, I believed only millionaires could afford them. Longingly, I used a pump of their creams, inhaling that herbal scent.

Book 9 #WP25
This is a low pick for me. The last 100 pages were a bit of a struggle, I didn't want to pick it up and read more about her self destruction, but I was still interested in her life as an Afghani-German and what it was like as a German immigrant with so much hate that we don't talk about.
The writing throughout is solid, and the perspective is one I don't see a lot of in English Lit so it makes sense why this was chosen for the WP

She turned on the radio in the mornings, dancing when rock songs filled the kitchen with bygone delight. Recited poetry in an old, formal Persian-lines that I didn't understand but whose cadences imprinted themselves onto my brain-and took me to local libraries, where I was allowed to read as much as I wanted, the weight of the laminated library card like a luxurious treasure in my hand, my own name written in blue ink underneath: Nilab Haddadi.

...as if to signal to us idiots that reality still existed...

(How do you let someone know the party's over?)

#WeeklyForecast
#WP25 I have 100 pages left of the tagged then I can start A Little Trickerie which I am super excited for
🎧This week's listen will be Ancillary Justice my January #DoubleSpin

Then hoping to sneak in The Coin which needs to go back to the library.

"Yet the hymns, the hosannas and hevenu shalom aleichem, the psalms, the lessons of Genesis and Revolution, they did not remain. What remains is the searing loneliness I felt, the nights I stayed awake by myself, reading Wuthering Heights and Lolita, underlining everything, trying to forget the fact I was one of the only girls at school who had black hair.

#WP25

This is a hell of an intense book. The protagonist, Nila - as she likes to be known, not by her full first name, Nilab - is grieving her mother and uncomfortable with her Afghan identity in a city where racist attacks and neo-Nazis are on the rise, and she seeks solace/oblivion in the hedonism of the Berlin techno scene.

Library reservation came in early

Sunday morning reading buddy

Enjoyed this debut. We follow Nila, who is Afghan, but pretends to be other nationalities to avoid being profiled in Berlin.

The story is well crafted and it made me feel gritty and uncomfortable sometimes while reading (this is good!).

Loved!

TW: Substance abuse, domestic violence

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #arc Pub Date: 1/14/25

Currently reading… #arc