Things Are Good Now

February 1, 2019
The stories in Ibrahim's urgent first collection cross the globe over and back again, exploring the nuances and challenges of the migrant experience. Mothers, lovers, sisters, and friends cope with the weight of displacement on their relationships. A great many stories feature Ethiopian citizens moving to Canada, though characters from nearby countries transplanting to other Western nations are present, as well. The predicaments are heartbreakingly familiar, seemingly stolen from the headlines. A hijab is pulled from a young woman's head by hateful Westerners. Intelligent citizens who held highly esteemed jobs at home are relegated to scut work in their new life. Lovers are torn apart by the necessities of their transient situation as one partner marries a new person for a green card, while the other turns to sex work for money and protection. The strength of the collection comes from the intersectionality of the narratives: the experience of being black and Muslim, the experience of being Middle Eastern, female, and a veteran, and the list goes on. Extremely observant and impossible to forget.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)