When We Were Sisters

Last updated
When We Were Sisters
Author Fatimah Asghar
LanguageEnglish
Publisher One World
Publication placeUnited States

When We Were Sisters is a 2022 novel by American writer Fatimah Asghar. The novel follows the lives of three orphaned sisters sent to live with their uncle after their father's death.

Contents

Writing and publication

Asghar wrote the novel during a "period of extreme rejection". [1] Before the novel, Asghar had not written fiction, and described writing the book as "one of the hardest artistic endeavors I've ever done". [1] Krista Franklin encouraged Asghar to "write the book however it was coming" as she worked. [2]

Asghar was inspired by the novel We the Animals . [3]

Reception and accolades

Critical reception

According to the literary review aggregator Book Marks, the novel received mostly "Rave" and "Positive" reviews. [4]

In a positive review published by Chicago Review of Books , Mary Retta praised Asghar's writing as "lyric, gentle, and fierce". [5] Retta compared the book's content to Asghar's web series Brown Girls , writing that like it, "the novel is committed to an honest portrayal of the lives of queer women of color". [5] Writing for Booklist , Allison Cho also praised Asghar's prose, saying that the novel contains "that same lyricism from her poetry collection". [6] In a review for the New York Times , Nicole Flattery praised Asghar's writing as "distinctive", but wrote that it "serves to mask commonplace observations" and was occasionally unclear. [3]

Accolades

Asghar was nominated for the 2023 Young Lions Fiction Award for the novel, which was ultimately won by Zain Khalid's Brother Alive. [7] The book won the inaugural Carol Shields Prize for Fiction in 2023. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carol Shields</span> Canadian writer

Carol Ann Shields was an American-born Canadian novelist and short story writer. She is best known for her 1993 novel The Stone Diaries, which won the U.S. Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as the Governor General's Award in Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joyce Carol Oates</span> American author (born 1938)

Joyce Carol Oates is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and non-fiction. Her novels Black Water (1992), What I Lived For (1994), and Blonde (2000), and her short story collections The Wheel of Love (1970) and Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories (2014) were each finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. She has won many awards for her writing, including the National Book Award, for her novel Them (1969), two O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal, and the Jerusalem Prize (2019).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lan Samantha Chang</span> American fiction writer

Lan Samantha Chang is an American novelist and short story writer. She is the author of The Family Chao (2022) and short story collection Hunger. For her fiction, which explores Chinese American experiences, she is a recipient of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Berlin Prize, the PEN/Open Book Award and the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Shields</span> American author and film director

David Shields is an American author who has published twenty-four books, including Reality Hunger, The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead, Black Planet, and Other People: Takes & Mistakes. The Very Last Interview was published by New York Review Books in 2022.

Andrea Barrett is an American novelist and short story writer. Her collection Ship Fever won the 1996 U.S. National Book Award for Fiction, and she received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2001. Her book Servants of the Map was a finalist for the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and Archangel and Natural History were finalists for The Story Prize.

<i>Activities of Daily Living</i> 2022 novel by Lisa Hsiao Chen

Activities of Daily Living is the first novel by Lisa Hsiao Chen, published by Norton in 2022. It was widely praised and was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and nominated for the inaugural Carol Shields Prize for Fiction.

<i>The Lazarus Project</i> (novel) 2008 novel by Aleksandar Hemon

The Lazarus Project is a 2008 novel by Bosnian fiction writer and journalist Aleksandar Hemon. It features the true story of the death of Lazarus Averbuch, a teenaged Jewish immigrant to Chicago who was shot and killed by a police officer in 1908. It was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award, as well as, the winner of the inaugural Jan Michalski Prize for Literature in 2010.

Carol Louise Edgarian is an American writer, editor, and publisher. Her novels include Rise the Euphrates,Three Stages of Amazement, and Vera. She is the co-founder and editor of the non-profit Narrative Magazine, a digital publisher of fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and art; and founder of Narrative for Schools, whose programs provide free learning and teaching resources for students and educators.

<i>We the Animals</i> Book by Justin Torres

We the Animals (2011) is the debut novel by the American author Justin Torres. It is a bildungsroman about three wild brothers of white and Puerto Rican parentage who live a rough and tumble childhood in rural upstate New York during the 1980s. The youngest brother, who is the protagonist, eventually breaks away from the rest of the family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Namwali Serpell</span> Zambian feminist academic and writer (born 1980)

Namwali Serpell is an American and Zambian writer who teaches in the United States. In April 2014, she was named on Hay Festival's Africa39 list of 39 sub-Saharan African writers aged under 40 with the potential and talent to define trends in African literature. Her short story "The Sack" won the 2015 Caine Prize for African fiction in English. In 2020, Serpell won the Belles-lettres category Grand Prix of Literary Associations 2019 for her debut novel The Old Drift.

<i>The Sympathizer</i> 2015 novel by Viet Thanh Nguyen

The Sympathizer is the 2015 debut novel by Vietnamese-American professor and writer Viet Thanh Nguyen. It is a best-selling novel, and recipient of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The novel received generally positive reviews from critics. It was named on more than 30 best book of the year lists and a New York Times Editor's Choice.

Menna van Praag is an English novelist and writing educator. Her magical realism novels include The House at the End of Hope Street (2013), The Dress Shop of Dreams (2014), and The Sisters Grimm trilogy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fatimah Asghar</span> American poet

Fatimah Asghar is a South Asian American poet, director and screenwriter. Co-creator and writer for the Emmy-nominated webseries Brown Girls, their work has appeared in Poetry, Gulf Coast, BuzzFeed Reader, The Margins, The Offing, Academy of American Poets, and other publications.

<i>There There</i> (novel) 2018 novel by Tommy Orange

There There is the debut novel by Cheyenne and Arapaho author Tommy Orange. Published in 2018, the book follows a large cast of Native Americans living in the Oakland, California area and contains several essays on Native American history and identity. The characters struggle with a wide array of challenges, ranging from depression and alcoholism, to unemployment, fetal alcohol syndrome, and the challenges of living with an "ambiguously nonwhite" ethnic identity in the United States. All of the characters unite at a community powwow and its attempted robbery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kali Fajardo-Anstine</span>

Sabrina & Corina: Stories. penguin random house. 2019.

<i>How Much of These Hills Is Gold</i> 2020 novel by C Pam Zhang

How Much of These Hills Is Gold is a 2020 debut novel by American author C Pam Zhang. It was longlisted for the Booker Prize and won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature for Adult Fiction. The book was published by Riverhead Books in North America and by Virago Press in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth.

<i>We Are the Ants</i> 2016 novel by Shaun David Hutchinson

We Are the Ants is a young adult science fiction novel by Shaun David Hutchinson, published January 19, 2016 by Simon Pulse with a 24-page companion story, "What We Pretend to Be", published on the publisher's website, Riveted, later that year.

Shaun David Hutchinson is an American author of young adult texts. His novels often "combine speculative elements with LGBT characters and themes."

<i>The Ogress and the Orphans</i> 2022 childrens book by Kelly Barnhill

The Ogress and the Orphans is a children's book by American writer Kelly Barnhill and published on March 8, 2022, by Algonquin Books. It counts the events of a small fictional town, where the library is burned down and an orphan goes missing, which leads to its citizen blaming an ogress who had just moved in.

<i>A History of Burning</i> 2023 novel by Janika Oza

A History of Burning is a 2023 novel by Canadian author Janika Oza. It was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction at the 2023 Governor General's Awards and for the 2024 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. The 10 perspectives in the novel trace one family's experiences over a century as they migrate from India to Africa and eventually to Canada, all the while facing the challenge of preserving their cultural customs and unity in the face of a frequently unwelcoming environment and evolving societal standards.

References

  1. 1 2 Bansinath, Bindu (18 October 2022). "Fatimah Asghar Redefines the Orphan Narrative". The Cut. Retrieved 20 April 2023.
  2. Sabir, Sultan (13 October 2022). "The PEN Ten: An Interview with Fatimah Asghar". PEN America. Retrieved 22 April 2023.
  3. 1 2 Flattery, Nicole (10 November 2022). "Which Is More Terrifying: Nature or Other People?". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 April 2023.
  4. "When We Were Sisters". Book Marks. Literary Hub. Retrieved 20 April 2023.
  5. 1 2 Retta, Mary (24 October 2022). "Sisterhood Beyond Womanhood in "When We Were Sisters"". Chicago Review of Books. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  6. Cho, Allison. "When We Were Sisters, by Fatimah Asghar". Booklist. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  7. Manley, Janet (19 April 2023). "Here are the finalists for the 2023 Young Lions Fiction Award". Literary Hub. Retrieved 20 April 2023.
  8. "Winner of the 2023 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction". carolshieldsprizeforfiction.com.