These Impossible Things
Books | Fiction / Friendship
4.2
(131)
Salma El-Wardany
A Read With Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick!Three best friends navigate love, sex, faith—and the one night that changes it all—in this novel that reveals “searing and poignant truths about the female experience” (Ashley Audrain, NYT bestselling author of The Push)Whatever happened to the way we were? It’s always been Malak, Kees, and Jenna against the world. Since childhood, under the watchful eyes of their family and community, these three best friends have had to navigate love, sex, faith, and womanhood alongside the expectations of being good Muslim women. But they’ve always done it together. Malak wants the dream: for her partner, community, and faith to coexist happily, and she’ll even break her own heart to get it. Kees is in love with Harry, a white Catholic man who her parents can never know about. Jenna is always the life of the party, even though she’s plagued by an unshakable loneliness. But when their college years come to a close, one night changes everything. As their lives take different paths, in the wake of heartbreaks, marriages, new careers and new beginnings, Malak, Kees, and Jenna need each other more than ever. Can they forgive and find a way back to each other in time?These Impossible Things is a moving paean to youth and female friendship—and to all the joy and messiness love holds.
Coming Of Age
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More Details:
Author
Salma El-Wardany
Pages
416
Publisher
Grand Central Publishing
Published Date
2022-06-07
ISBN
1538709325 9781538709320
Ratings
Google: 4
Community ReviewsSee all
"This was a slow burn for me, I was reading it casually over the course of a week whenever I had some free time, until I reached about 40% through then could not put this down until I had finished it. Very compelling and emotional, loved this depiction of friendship. "
Tiffany Wysbeek
"Good prose but terrible rep of muslim men"
Ebbie Bee
"If you have doubts about religion or god and grew up religious I recommend "
Emmalyne Hellbusch
"Best book of 2022"
L H
Lauryn Hartlauer
"This was a beautiful, hopeful, emotional and sometimes hard to read book about friendships, family, love, faith and culture. This book is not perfect and it was in the 3rd person but it made me cry so it’s getting rounded up to a 5⭐️. There are 3 POVs and it follows Malak, Biliquis and Jenna who are best friends and Muslims in their life journeys and relationships. Malak and Biliquis both are dating white non Muslim men and it was very interesting to see how they both went about that and how their families reacted to that. Jenna is struggling with loneliness and living up to cultural expectations of a non married woman and how people in the community viewed her. <br/><br/>It was heartbreaking to read some parts and I felt bad especially about the bad relationship one of the characters ended up in and with events that happened to other characters. Overall I really liked it and I think it’s a story that showed the different relationships these characters had with being Muslim and how it impacted their relationship with family and friends. <br/><br/>Content Warning: rape, abusive relationship, abortion<br/><br/>Rating: 4.25/5⭐️"
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