Once a Stranger (Zoya Patel, Hachette)

Following on from her debut memoir No Country Woman, Zoya Patel’s novel Once a Stranger tackles the same themes of cultural bereavement, being caught between two different worlds and the experience of being a settler-minority in Australia. The book catapults between ‘before’ and ‘now’, primarily oscillating between the three Ishmael women—Ayat, her mother Khadija and her sister Laila—as they grapple with the repercussions of familial estrangement and unmet cultural obligations. Having not spoken to Khadija and Laila for six years after being effectively excommunicated from the family for refusing to marry a Muslim boy, Ayat receives a fateful email with news of Khadija’s motor neurone disease diagnosis. With its Indian-Muslim protagonist who moved to Australia at a young age and grew up in a regional town, Patel’s novel treads similar territory to her memoir. As such, Once a Stranger is realistic and rich with detail: ‘the creeping odour of either mould or something more malignant’ at Ayat’s Islamic Sunday school; ‘the feeling of fabric pooling around her again’ as Ayat wears her salwar pants. Where Patel especially excels is in her seamless inhabiting of two opposing world views; neither side is painted as a villain, no reductive moral judgements are made. Once a Stranger will appeal to readers of Amal Awad, Sarah Malik and Sara El Sayed.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Sonia Nair is a Melbourne-based writer and critic. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

Category: Reviews