Our Names - by Isabella Hammad (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

"A calm and vital storyteller, a writer of real rhythmic grace."--Ali Smith, The Guardian

From one of the most "assured and formidable" (Wall Street Journal) literary voices today, Our Names spans a decade to tell a story of international politics and intrigue through the magnetic friendship between two women

1955 Bandung, Indonesia. 22-year-old Marie Nahhas has been granted the opportunity to travel with the Lebanese delegation to the first Asian-African Conference--the largest gathering of leaders from recently decolonized countries to date--as one of two secretaries, the spare. Stricken by her brother's death two years prior and uncertain about her impending marriage, the conference is a fleeting chance for adventure, to witness history in a way that would have made her brother proud.

There, she meets Shirin, an Indian Parsi photojournalist, self-assured and daring, who knows how to use being underestimated as a woman to her advantage. Skeptical of Marie's engagement and unafraid to stray from the beaten path, it seems Shirin has a lot to teach Marie. Eleven years later, Shirin is the one with questions. She embarks on a search for Marie that carries her on a winding journey across Lebanon. Navigating rich political terrain through an intimate lens, Our Names is an expansive and masterfully written book about imagining a world after empire.

Review Quotes

Praise for Enter Ghost:

"[Hammad] is at once able to trace broad social and historical terrains without losing her grasp of particulars, giving a surgical finesse to her writing about the human personality."--The Washington Post

"Hammad navigates between the personal and the political in what has come to be her signally seamless manner. She moves across these borders often, almost as if they did not exist."--Raja Shehadeh, The Nation

"An exquisite piece of storytelling that weaves history and politics and family with a profound meditation on the purpose of art. It's nuanced, multilayered and gorgeously written and, as with all great novels, rewards multiple readings."--Monica Ali, The Guardian

Praise for The Parisian:

"Dazzling . . . A deeply imagined historical novel with none of the usual cobwebs of the genre . . . Exquisite."--New York Times Book Review

"Hammad uses the features of historical novels to cut through the familiar dichotomies of West and Near East, placing her protagonist in a rich web of families, political intrigues, and cultural exchanges, and subtly reconfiguring the literary tropes of 'home' and 'abroad.'"--The New Yorker

"Assured and captivating . . . Ms. Hammad's acute evocation of place and personality ensures that we are never lost . . . This agile writer sets us firmly in place, fixing our attention on intersecting lives."--The Wall Street Journal

About the Author

Isabella Hammad is the author of the novels The Parisian and Enter Ghost and the nonfiction book Recognizing the Stranger: On Palestine and Narrative. The Parisian won a Palestine Book Award, the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a Betty Trask Award. She was a National Book Foundation "5 Under 35 Honoree" and named one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists. Enter Ghost won the Aspen Words Literary Prize and was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction. The winner of the Plimpton Prize for Fiction and an O. Henry Prize, Isabella has been awarded literary fellowships from the Cullman Center, the Lannan Foundation, and the Columbia University Institute for Ideas and Imagination. She is currently based in NYC.