Sisters in Arms
Translated by Ruth Martin
Overview
From the author of International Booker Prize-shortlisted The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran
‘We don’t exist in this world. Here we’re neither Germans nor refugees; we aren’t newsreaders or experts. We’re some kind of joker in the pack, and they don’t know if they can use us for anything.’
Kasih, Hani, and Saya have shared a deep friendship since school and the years they lived in the same public housing estate. Kasih and Hani still live in the same city, but now Saya is returning and they have a lot to catch up on. Yet amid the laughter and determination of their sisterhood, it’s clear to the three young women that they haven’t escaped the racism that has accompanied their daily lives since childhood: the glances, the chatter, and the outright right-wing terror.
Sisters in Arms is a lyrical, explosive novel about the importance of friendship — the kind of extraordinary friendship that brings stability to an unstable world. Until one dramatic night that will change everything for the three women, propelling Kasih to tell the tale of themselves.
Details
- Format
- Size
- Extent
- ISBN
- RRP
- Pub date
- Rights held
- Other rights
- Paperback
- 234mm x 153mm
- 288 pages
- 9781761380105
- AUD$32.99
- 5 September 2023
- World English
- Kiepenheuer & Witsch
Categories
Praise
‘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.’
‘Shida Bazyar tells us — uncompromisingly, powerfully, and accusingly — what it means to have one’s origins constantly questioned.’
About the Author
Shida Bazyar, born in 1988, studied writing in Hildesheim, and, in addition to writing, worked in youth education for many years. She is the author of The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran — which has won the Blogger Literary Award, Ulla Hahn Prize, and Uwe Johnson Prize, among others, and has been translated into Dutch, Farsi, French, and Turkish — and Sisters in Arms.
Translator
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 to Angela Merkel. Together with Charlotte Collins, she won the 2020 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation, for Nino Haratischwili’s epic novel The Eighth Life. Her translation of Shida Bazyar’s The Nights are Quiet in Tehran was shortlisted for the 2026 International Booker Prize. Ruth has taught at the University of Kent and the Bristol Translates summer school, and is currently a Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow at Newnham College, Cambridge.
