Sisters in Arms

Shida Bazyar (trans. Ruth Martin)

“Sends us on a journey of exploration, right into the abyss of German identity politics — a magnificent book.”

Süddeutsche Zeitung

“A smart, important novel that gives you a caress on the cheek and a punch in the jaw as you read it. The amazing thing is that in the end you want more of both.”

Pierre Jarawan author of Song for the Missing

View all reviews

“Shida Bazyar tells us — uncompromisingly, powerfully, and accusingly — what it means to have one’s origins constantly questioned.”

Judges’ comments for The German Book Prize

“It tackles the pressing issues of our time, and yet it is timeless. This is a story of friendship, marginalization and society's blindness to its own deep-seated problems … A triumph. It has all the makings of great literature, literature that will endure … Sisters in Arms demonstrates that all the talk about the lack of social relevance of art and literature is a fatal mistake.”

Gerrit Wustmann, Qantara

“An explosive feminist and anti-racist novel about the importance of friendship … Sisters ini Arms is a provocative, uncompromising, and moving novel about the extraordinary alliance between three young women and the only thing that makes a self-determined life possible in a society that doesn't tolerate otherness: unconditional friendship.”

Female

“Humane, relatable, and self-aware, Sisters in Arms is an involving novel that indicts polite neoliberalism and open racism alike for the ways in which people in contemporary societies are forced apart.”

Foreword Reviews

“[W]ill appeal to fans of Elena Ferrante, Zadie Smith, and Kamila Shamsie … An immersive and thought-provoking read with a strong plot and relatable characters, and which explores urgent contemporary questions around racism and sexism in society.”

New Books in German

An explosive feminist and anti-racist novel about the importance of friendship.

“We don’t exist in this world. Here, we are neither Germans nor refugees, we don’t report the news and we aren’t the experts. We’re some sort of wildcard.”

Hani, Kasih, and Saya have shared a deep friendship ever since they were kids. After years apart, the three young women meet again for a few days, to pick up where they left off. But regardless of what they have achieved, it becomes clear, again and again, that they can’t escape the racism that accompanies their daily lives: the glances, the chatter, the hatred, and the outright rightwing terror. But their friendship gives them stability. Until one dramatic night shakes everything up.

Sisters in Arms is a provocative, uncompromising, and moving novel about the extraordinary alliance between three young women and the only thing that makes a self-determined life possible in a society that doesn’t tolerate otherness: unconditional friendship.

“Sends us on a journey of exploration, right into the abyss of German identity politics — a magnificent book.”

Süddeutsche Zeitung

“A smart, important novel that gives you a caress on the cheek and a punch in the jaw as you read it. The amazing thing is that in the end you want more of both.”

Pierre Jarawan author of Song for the Missing

View all reviews

“Shida Bazyar tells us — uncompromisingly, powerfully, and accusingly — what it means to have one’s origins constantly questioned.”

Judges’ comments for The German Book Prize

Gerrit Wustmann, Qantara

Female

Foreword Reviews

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Details

Format:Paperback

Size: 7.8in × 5.1in

Extent:288pp

ISBN (13):9781957363523

RRP:$18.00

Pub date:5 Feb 2024

High-res cover:Download Image

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AUTHOR

Shida Bazyar

Shida Bazyar, born in 1988, studied writing in Hildesheim, and, in addition to writing, worked in youth education for many years. Her debut novel Nachts ist es leise in Teheran (2016) won the Blogger Literary Award, Ulla Hahn Prize, and Uwe Johnson Prize, among others, and has been translated into Dutch, Farsi, French, and Turkish. Sisters in Arms is her second novel, and her first to be translated into English.

TRANSLATOR

Ruth Martin

Ruth Martin studied English literature before gaining a PhD in German. She has been translating fiction and nonfiction books since 2010, by authors ranging from Joseph Roth and Hannah Arendt to Volker Weidermann and Shida Bazyar. She has taught translation at the University of Kent and the Bristol Translates summer school, and is a former co-chair of the Society of Authors Translators Association.

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Sisters in Arms

Shida Bazyar (trans. Ruth Martin)

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Multi-time winner of the Australian Small Publisher of the Year Award