Safia Elhillo

A mesmerizing novel in verse about family, identity, and finding yourself in the most unexpected places--for fans of The Poet X, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, and Jason Reynolds. Nima doesn't feel understood. By her mother, who grew up far away in a different land. By her suburban town, which makes her feel too much like an outsider to fit in and not enough like an outsider to feel like that she belongs somewhere else. At least she has her childhood friend Haitham, with whom she can let her guard down and be herself.Until she doesn't. As the ground is pulled out from under her, Nima must grapple with the phantom of a life not chosen, the name her parents didn't give her at birth: Yasmeen. But that other name, that other girl, might just be more real than Nima knows. And more hungry.And the life Nima has, the one she keeps wishing were someone else's. . .she might have to fight for it with a fierceness she never knew she had. "Nothing short of magic...One of the best writers of our times."-- Elizabeth Acevedo, New York Times Bestselling author of The Poet X

Home Is Not a Country

Kierce

my mother all alone still crowding herself to one side of the bed saving his place 

ours is a culture that worships yesterday over tomorrow 

a writer pulling stacks of books from his knotted brain 

my language washed of all its hesitation 

my loneliness grows teeth I feel them chewing at my stomach 

the hospital is a maze every room its own private chamber of grief 

i can’t stand to be so near her open hurting

want a body that is mine  actually mine  a body i feel fluent in 

Home Is Not a Country quotes

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