![]() When Gameela is killed in a suicide bombing outside a Cairo police station, Rose is flooded with guilt and resentment toward Mark - several months before, Gameela had accompanied Mark to interview the man who would eventually carry out the mass murder, a youth living in poverty whose sympathies lay with the Muslim Brotherhood. Mark has converted to Islam in order to marry Rose, but Gameela doubts his sincerity the distance between the sisters' homes and beliefs grows over the years. Gameela has misgivings when Rose decides to marry Mark, an American reporter, and move to the U.S. The sisters were raised in a decidedly nonreligious household, and their father is horrified when Gameela starts to wear a hijab, which "magically, instantaneously transported her closer to God and away from her family, which was as fervently devoted to its secularism as any religious fundamentalist was to God." Rose and Gameela were close as children, but grew apart over the years, chiefly due to Gameela's decision to become more strict about her Muslim faith. Rose's quest to trace her sister's last months before her untimely death forms the basis of A Pure Heart, a lovely novel about the bonds of family and how religion can bring people together as well as tear them apart.īook Reviews 'Marilou Is Everywhere,' And Also A Miracle Which single misstep on the trail that led to Gameela's death could Rose have prevented over the phone?" Rose "lies awake at night thinking of the endless ways she has not helped Gameela, regretting all the times she almost picked up the phone but got too wrapped up in the hustle of life and postponed the call. After her sister, Gameela, is killed in a suicide bombing in her native Egypt - not long after the country's 2011 revolution - Rose is convinced that her decision to marry an American journalist caused her sister's death. The feelings might be irrational, but there's nothing rational about grief.įor Rose, the protagonist of Rajia Hassib's new novel, A Pure Heart, the guilt is even more literal. ![]() Once a brother or sister passes away, there's frequently a string of intrusive thoughts that pummel the surviving sibling: I should have visited them more often I should have told them how I felt while I had the chance. Of all the emotions that can arise following the loss of a sibling, one of the most painful is guilt. ![]() Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title A Pure Heart Author Rajia Hassib
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |