A Pure Heart

June 1, 2019
Her sister's death at the hands of a suicide bomber leads Rose Gubran to piece together a complex portrait of a sibling whose inner motivations remained largely in the shadows. The Arab Spring that shook Egypt in 2011 left Rose, an ambitious Egyptologist, largely unscathed. After all, she followed her American journalist husband back to the United States just months before history turned. But her sister, Gameela, who gets swept up in the revolutionary fervor, does not have the same luck. Instead, years later, Gameela is dead, the unfortunate victim of a suicide bombing. Rose is wracked by guilt: She believes she could have done more to salvage her frayed bonds with her sister. Worse, Rose worries that her husband's newspaper profile of a suspected sympathizer of the Muslim Brotherhood might have indirectly contributed to Gameela's death. Egyptian mythology deifies the goddess Isis, who helps resurrect Osiris, the god of the underworld, after he is killed. Rose is the modern-day equivalent of Isis, convinced that she can imagine Gameela whole again. Hassib (In the Language of Miracles, 2015) expertly follows the bread crumbs as Rose assembles a fractured picture of the sister she never knew. Gameela's motivation to lean on religion as a succor remains mostly opaque till the very end. Nevertheless, the story fluidly explores how even seismic historical events can mix with everyday emotions such as sibling rivalry and insecurity to concoct a potent brew. "Our lives here are about politics. And religion. Every single day....We're not all American, Rose," Gameela reminds her sister. "Some of us don't have the luxury of a normal life." A devastating definition of the new normal in which revolution does not always deliver real power to institute change.

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August 19, 2019
Hassib’s impressive second novel (after In the Language of Miracles) is a fascinating depiction of sisters Rose and Gameela, their shared heritage, and the country that ultimately divides them. Six years after Rose relocates from her native Egypt to New York, she receives news that 28-year-old Gameela has been killed. Though her parents think Gameela’s death is accidental, Rose believes there must be a connection between it and Saaber, the young suicide bomber Rose’s husband Mark had written about in an article for the New York Times. Back in New York after the funeral, Rose tries to focus on her postdoctoral fellowship at the Met, yet she is immersed in Egypt’s art and culture as she works on an exhibit featuring ancient Egyptian relics. Rose investigates Gameela’s life, trying to piece together the chain of events leading up to her death. In grief, she reflects on how the sisters felt a chasm develop between them, starting with Gameela’s desire to wear a headscarf, which surprised her liberal family. Also, Gameela initially doesn’t approve of Mark, though he converts to Islam to marry Rose. Gameela becomes involved in politics after the beginning of the Arab Spring, while all Rose can do is watch from afar. Finally, Rose discovers secrets her sister kept until her death. Hassib seamlessly transports the reader from one culture to another, eloquently showcasing the triumphs, heartaches, and beliefs shared by the protagonists. Agent: Lynn Nesbit, Janklow & Nesbit Associates.

Starred review from May 15, 2019
In the wake of her sister's death, Rose, an Egyptologist at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, begins searching for answers. Gameela, who stayed in Cairo after Rose immigrated to the U.S., was killed in a suicide bomb blast. But the chain of events that led to that day can be traced back to an interview that Gameela set up for Rose's husband, a journalist, with a Muslim Brotherhood sympathizer. From her parents' home, Rose spirits away some items that belonged to Gameela to try to understand her better, using her own archaeologist's eye to attempt to find secrets from the very recent past. Gameela had become estranged from her secular family as a teenager after she began living as a devout Muslim, and Rose soon learns that she had been keeping secrets for some time. As Rose struggles to understand Gameela and come to grips with her husband's role in the events that led to her death, a multifaceted look at the complicated legacies of identity, religion, and politics in Egypt after the Arab Spring emerges. Even the story of the suicide bomber is given careful consideration in this enlightening, heartrending novel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

August 1, 2019

When her sister Gameela is killed in a terrorist bombing in Cairo, New York-based Rose tries to put together the pieces to figure out how it happened. She feels anger at husband Mark, an American journalist, who interviewed the bomber before the attack, and wrestles with her own guilt about indirectly connecting Mark with her sister's killer and for the distance between herself and Gameela in the years preceding the event. An archaeologist by trade, Rose gathers artifacts that she hopes will provide her with answers and uncovers a chain of secrets about her sister's life. Hassib (In the Language of Miracles) draws an intimate portrait of contemporary Egypt, deftly explaining the complexity of political viewpoints regarding the revolution and postrevolutionary years. Through her characters, she shows the subtle differences in class, culture, and religious belief that can cause fractures in families, marriages, and societies. Gameela clashes with her upper-middle-class parents over her more conservative view of Islam and her choice of suitor, while Rose and Mark disagree over what Rose views as his simplistic view of Egypt's political situation. VERDICT Giving a voice to everyone, even the bomber, Hassib displays empathy and compassion steeped in a deep knowledge of her subject. Recommended. [See Prepub Alert, 2/4/19.]--Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Univ. of Minnesota Libs., Minneapolis

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2019

Author of the LJ-starred In the Language of Miracles, Hassib tells the tale of two Muslim sisters in Cairo. Egyptologist Rose Gubran marries an American journalist and ends up working at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, while the devout Gameela remains home and is killed in a suicide bombing.

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.