Oggi forse non ammazzo nessuno: storie minime di una giovane musulmana stranamente non terrorista
(Maybe I won't kill anyone today: small stories of a young Muslim girl who surprisingly is not a terrorist) Book not yet available in English
Summary:
The Jinns belong to a world that is not human, nor that of angels. They are in-between, they can be good or evil, and they are certainly very curious. Jasmine is like a jinn: good, but often angry because no one understands her. Not her best friend Amira, who after years of common front gives in to an arranged marriage. Not her parents, puzzled by the rebellious outbursts of a twenty-year-old in search of her own identity. Not the Muslim boys, who would like her to be simpler and quieter. Not the western boys, who are ready to dump unbearable clichés about Arab people on her. Lost in a tangle of contradictions, Jasmine has a powerful weapon: irony. And in this very true story, written in 2006 but relevant still today, Randa Ghazy succeeds in mixing a lively polemical instinct with the light-heartedness of someone who knows how to laugh at herself. [Publisher’s website]
Edited by: Centro MeTRa - Università di Bologna (Italy)
Comment:
Forse oggi non ammazzo nessuno is certainly an entertaining and amusing novel, like few others in the Italian publishing, at least in the field of young adult literature, and is therefore a valuable read. The novel, told in the first person, describes with irony and sensitivity the countless ups and downs and difficulties experienced by the so-called second generations, the children of migrant parents, who constantly balance worlds and cultures that often seem irreconcilable. The effort is twice as hard when it comes to girls, who are torn between opposing and somehow equally coercive gender models, from which they try to escape and find an independent path in search of an identity that can only be based on their own extraordinary uniqueness, beyond the usual models and unwritten rules. Many themes are explored, including the veil, sex, love, friendship, and work. For this reason, the novel should be read by the broadest possible audience, as each boy or girl will find interesting and perhaps unprecedented insights into issues that concern them closely.