Advertisement
Books

Namesake by NS Nuseibeh review – personal insight informed by Islamic myth and culture

Topics as diverse as feminism and patriarchy, motherhood and food, privacy and community through the lens of Islam

Namesake, the debut collection of essays from British-Palestinian author NS Nuseibeh, is a wonderfully inventive blend of personal insight and contemporary commentary with Islamic history, myth and culture.

Her family legend has it that they are direct descendants of Nusayba Bint Ka’ab al Kazrajiah, a famous women warrior who fought alongside the Prophet Muhammad at the dawn of Islam.Nuseibeh uses her ancestor’s life as a thread that runs through an eclectic and subtle collection dealing with her upbringing in East Jerusalem and many aspects of her life today in the UK. 

Change a Big Issue vendor’s life this winter by purchasing a Winter Support Kit. You’ll receive four copies of the magazine and create a brighter future for our vendors

Tackling topics as diverse as feminism and patriarchy, motherhood and food, privacy and community, she is direct and frank when needed, but intuitive and profound elsewhere. Throughout it all she compares her own experience to an imagined life of her ancient ancestor, often with funny and thought-provoking results. 

“I did not set out to write about Jerusalem,” she writes in the introduction. “But it turns out that it is impossible to write about early Islam without reference to Jerusalem, and impossible for me, as a Palestinian, to explore the personal without reference to the political.”

Some of the details of Nuseibeh’s upbringing in East Jerusalem under Israeli rule are shocking, but this is far from a polemical tirade, the author preferring to lay out the facts simply and clearly for maximum emotional impact. But overall this is and wonderful and essential varied collection, smart and self-deprecating, astute and amusing, disturbing and vital.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Namesake by NS Nuseibeh

Doug Johnstone is an author and journalist.

Namesake by NS Nuseibeh is out on 18 January (Canongate, £16.99). You can buy it from The Big Issue shop on Bookshop.org, which helps to support The Big Issue and independent bookshops.

This article is taken from The Big Issue magazine, which exists to give homeless, long-term unemployed and marginalised people the opportunity to earn an income. To support our work buy a copy!

If you cannot reach your local vendor, you can still click HERE to subscribe to The Big Issue today or give a gift subscription to a friend or family member. You can also purchase one-off issues from The Big Issue Shop or The Big Issue app, available now from the App Store or Google Play

Advertisement

Become a Big Issue member

3.8 million people in the UK live in extreme poverty. Turn your anger into action - become a Big Issue member and give us the power to take poverty to zero.

Recommended for you

Read All
Every family has a secret. By uncovering mine, I liberated my grandmother's sorrowful story
Family secrets

Every family has a secret. By uncovering mine, I liberated my grandmother's sorrowful story

Top 5 revolutionary books, chosen by historian and author Alice Hunt
Books

Top 5 revolutionary books, chosen by historian and author Alice Hunt

The Most by Jessica Anthony review – cracks just beneath the surface of an all-American family
Books

The Most by Jessica Anthony review – cracks just beneath the surface of an all-American family

An interstellar, alien meteor collided with Earth. This is what happened
Science

An interstellar, alien meteor collided with Earth. This is what happened

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue
4.

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue