The Thirty Names of Night: A Novel

ISBN: 1982121491

Author: Joukhadar, Zeyn

Condition: New

Winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender FictionWinner of the ALA Stonewall Book Award-Barbara Gittings Literature AwardNamed Best Book of the Year by BustleNamed Most Anticipated Book of the Year by The Millions, Electric Literature, and HuffPostThe author of the vivid and urgentimportant and timely (The New York Times Book Review) debut The Map of Salt and Stars returns with this remarkably moving and lyrical novel following three generations of Syrian Americans who are linked by a mysterious species of bird and the truths they carry close to their hearts.Five years after a suspicious fire killed his ornithologist mother, a closeted Syrian American trans boy sheds his birth name and searches for a new one. He has been unable to paint since his mothers ghost has begun to visit him each evening. As his grandmothers sole caretaker, he spends his days cooped up in their apartment, avoiding his neighborhood masjid, his estranged sister, and even his best friend (who also happens to be his longtime crush). The only time he feels truly free is when he slips out at night to paint murals on buildings in the once-thriving Manhattan neighborhood known as Little Syria.One night, he enters the abandoned community house and finds the tattered journal of a Syrian American artist named Laila Z, who dedicated her career to painting the birds of North America. She famously and mysteriously disappeared more than sixty years before, but her journal contains proof that both his mother and Laila Z encountered the same rare bird before their deaths. In fact, Laila Zs past is intimately tied to his mothers-and his grandmothers-in ways he never could have expected. Even more surprising, Laila Zs story reveals the histories of queer and transgender people within his own community that he never knew. Realizing that he isnt and has never been alone, he has the courage to officially claim a new name: Nadir, an Arabic name meaning rare.As unprecedented numbers of birds are mysteriously drawn to the New York City skies, Nadir enlists the help of his family and friends to unravel what happened to Laila Z and the rare bird his mother died trying to save. Following his mothers ghost, he uncovers the silences kept in the name of survival by his own community, his own family, and within himself, and discovers the family that was there all along.Featuring Zeyn Joukhadars signature magical and heart-wrenching (The Christian Science Monitor) storytelling, The Thirty Names of Night is a timely exploration of how we all search for and ultimately embrace who we are.