The book won the inaugural Carol Shields Prize for Fiction in 2023. Accolades Īsghar was nominated for the Young Lions Fiction Award for the novel. 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. Writing for Booklist, Allison Cho also praised Asghar's prose, saying that the novel contains 'that same lyricism from her poetry collection'. 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'. In a positive review published by Chicago Review of Books, Mary Retta praised Asghar's writing as 'lyric, gentle, and fierce'. Reception and accolades Critical reception Īccording to the literary review aggregator Book Marks, the novel received mostly 'Rave' and 'Positive' reviews. Īsghar was inspired by the novel We the Animals.

Krista Franklin encouraged Asghar to 'write the book however it was coming' as she worked. Before the novel, Asghar had not written fiction, and described writing the book as 'one of the hardest artistic endeavors I've ever done'. An orphan grapples with gender, siblinghood, family, and coming-of-age as a Muslim in America in this lyrical debut novel from the acclaimed author of If They Come For Us. The novel follows the lives of three orphaned sisters sent to live with their uncle after their father's death.Īsghar wrote the novel during a 'period of extreme rejection'. When We Were Sisters is a 2022 novel by American writer Fatimah Asghar. 2022 novel by Fatimah Asghar When We Were Sisters Author

When we were sisters asghar