The Coin
Buy Now
By using these links, you support READO. We receive an affiliate commission without any additional costs to you.
Description
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
A bold and unabashed novel about a young Palestinian woman's unraveling as she teaches at a New York City middle school, gets caught up in a scheme reselling Birkin bags, and strives to gain control over her body and mind
The Coin’s narrator is a wealthy Palestinian woman with impeccable style and meticulous hygiene. And yet the ideal self, the ideal life, remains just out of reach: her inheritance is inaccessible, her homeland exists only in her memory, and her attempt to thrive in America seems doomed from the start.
In New York, she strives to put down roots. She teaches at a school for underprivileged boys, where her eccentric methods cross boundaries. She befriends a homeless swindler, and the two participate in an intercontinental scheme reselling Birkin bags.
But America is stifling her—her willfulness, her sexuality, her principles. In an attempt to regain control, she becomes preoccupied with purity, cleanliness, and self-image, all while drawing her students into her obsessions. In an unforgettable denouement, her childhood memories converge with her material and existential statelessness, and the narrator unravels spectacularly.
“With biting humor and incisive prose” (Time), The Coin explores nature and civilization, beauty and justice, class and belonging—all while resisting easy moralizing. “Page-turning and delightful" (People), “sharp and disarming” (The Washington Post), “stunning and surreal” (Los Angeles Times), The Coin marks the arrival of a major new literary voice.
Book Information
Posts
Audiobooked too hard
Listened to this on an excursion and definitely could’ve listened more intently. So take this with a heap of salt, but i couldn’t really get into it, the story and characters did not seem to fully take shape in my heart (rather than mind) therefore their intentions and actions weren’t all too clear to me. Fairly short book so i’ll re-read one day and hopefully rate it better than this woops
Description
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
A bold and unabashed novel about a young Palestinian woman's unraveling as she teaches at a New York City middle school, gets caught up in a scheme reselling Birkin bags, and strives to gain control over her body and mind
The Coin’s narrator is a wealthy Palestinian woman with impeccable style and meticulous hygiene. And yet the ideal self, the ideal life, remains just out of reach: her inheritance is inaccessible, her homeland exists only in her memory, and her attempt to thrive in America seems doomed from the start.
In New York, she strives to put down roots. She teaches at a school for underprivileged boys, where her eccentric methods cross boundaries. She befriends a homeless swindler, and the two participate in an intercontinental scheme reselling Birkin bags.
But America is stifling her—her willfulness, her sexuality, her principles. In an attempt to regain control, she becomes preoccupied with purity, cleanliness, and self-image, all while drawing her students into her obsessions. In an unforgettable denouement, her childhood memories converge with her material and existential statelessness, and the narrator unravels spectacularly.
“With biting humor and incisive prose” (Time), The Coin explores nature and civilization, beauty and justice, class and belonging—all while resisting easy moralizing. “Page-turning and delightful" (People), “sharp and disarming” (The Washington Post), “stunning and surreal” (Los Angeles Times), The Coin marks the arrival of a major new literary voice.
Book Information
Posts
Audiobooked too hard
Listened to this on an excursion and definitely could’ve listened more intently. So take this with a heap of salt, but i couldn’t really get into it, the story and characters did not seem to fully take shape in my heart (rather than mind) therefore their intentions and actions weren’t all too clear to me. Fairly short book so i’ll re-read one day and hopefully rate it better than this woops