The beauty of your face came to light this week by author Sahar Mustafa. The book tells a compelling story. The book came out on 7 April and has already received widely positive reviews. So, what is the story about?
Beauty of Your Face plot
The book follows the story of Afaf Rahman, a young Palestinian American girl. Afaf, based in Chicago, is the principal of a Muslim school for girls. She is seen fighting her identity and faith for a day continuously. He is facing a life or death situation.
Afaf comes face to face with a school shooter, and the book tells the story of how he reacts to this stressful situation. The book alternates between the Flash from the present day and its childhood. Flashbacks reveal how his family was separated from his sister’s disappearance, and his mother is still dreaming of a day when his family will be able to return to Palestine.
Afaf’s struggle and hardship through her home life and personal life, how her family turns to faith after a car crash that shakes them, are all described very vividly in the novel.
The story also has two points of view, one of Afaf’s and the other of the Shooter. The story tries to make us understand how he is feeling and his internal struggles. What led him to commit this crime.
All in all, the book tells the story of a woman living in a nation where everyone is at odds with her religion, her faith. The primary point behind this story is to tell people that if you look closely enough, you can find something familiar in the story of other people. At least that’s how I felt.
The Beauty of Your Face Reviews
The book has received mostly positive reviews from readers. The only bland part in the book was the Shooter’s point of view, I guess, as it came as an interruption to Afaf’s story about her childhood and home.
It was as if these were two different stories moving parallelly, but the main action of the book was Afaf’s story and how her life slowly unravels in the pages of the book.
“Mustafah writes with grace and precision that shows a deep understanding of the ways trauma can distort life. The Beauty of Your Face is a richly empathetic work about the power of faith, family, and love.”
–Maurice Carlos Ruffin, author of We Cast a Shadow.
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