The Thirty Names of Night: A Novel

ISBN: 1982121521

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 HuffPostFrom the award-winning author of The Map of Salt and Stars, a new novel about three generations of Syrian Americans haunted by a mysterious species of bird and the truths they carry close to their hearts-a vivid exploration of loss, art, queer and trans communities, and the persistence of history. Often tender, always engrossing, The Thirty Names of Night is a feat (R.O. Kwon, author of The Incendiaries).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. 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, but hes been struggling ever since his mothers ghost began visiting him each evening.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 birds. She 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 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 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 folkloric, lyrical, and emotionally intense...gorgeous and alive (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) storytelling, The Thirty Names of Night is a stunningvivid, visceral, and urgent (Booklist, starred review) exploration of loss, memory, migration, and identity.