Footnote Press Ltd Hardback English
The Coin
Longlisted for the 2025 Dylan Thomas Prize
By Yasmin Zaher
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<p><b>A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN <i>DAZED</i>, <i>DEBUTIFUL </i>AND <i>THE INDEPENDENT</i></b><br><br><b>'A</b> <b>masterpiece' Slavoj Zizek | </b><b>'A filthy, elegant book' Raven Leilani | </b><b>'Glamorous and sordid' Elif Batuman</b><br><b>'Chipping away at Western hegemony one scalped it-bag at a time' <i>New York Times</i></b><br><b><br>A bold and unabashed novel about a young Palestinian woman's unraveling as she teaches at a New York City middle school, gets caught up in a scheme reselling Birkin bags, and strives to gain control over her body and mind.</b><br><br><i>The Coin</i>'s narrator is a wealthy Palestinian woman with impeccable style and meticulous hygiene. And yet the ideal self, the ideal life, remains just out of reach: her inheritance is inaccessible, her homeland exists only in her memory and her attempt to thrive in America seems doomed from the start.<br><br>In New York, she strives to put down roots. She teaches at a school for underprivileged boys, where her eccentric methods cross boundaries. She befriends a homeless swindler, and the two participate in a pyramid scheme reselling Birkin bags.<br><br>But America is stifling her - her wilfulness, her sexuality, her principles. In an attempt to regain control, she becomes preoccupied with purity, cleanliness and self-image, all while drawing her students into her obsessions. In an unforgettable denouement, her childhood memories converge with her material and existential statelessness and the narrator unravels spectacularly.<br><br>In enthralling, sensory prose,<i> The Coin</i> explores nature and civilisation, beauty and justice, class and belonging - all while resisting easy moralising. Provocative, wry and inviting, <i>The Coin</i> marks the arrival of a major new literary voice.</p>
<p><b>A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN <i>DAZED</i>, <i>DEBUTIFUL </i>AND <i>THE INDEPENDENT</i></b><br><br><b>'A</b> <b>masterpiece' Slavoj Zizek | </b><b>'A filthy, elegant book' Raven Leilani | </b><b>'Glamorous and sordid' Elif Batuman</b><br><b>'Chipping away at Western hegemony one scalped it-bag at a time' <i>New York Times</i></b><br><b><br>A bold and unabashed novel about a young Palestinian woman's unraveling as she teaches at a New York City middle school, gets caught up in a scheme reselling Birkin bags, and strives to gain control over her body and mind.</b><br><br><i>The Coin</i>'s narrator is a wealthy Palestinian woman with impeccable style and meticulous hygiene. And yet the ideal self, the ideal life, remains just out of reach: her inheritance is inaccessible, her homeland exists only in her memory and her attempt to thrive in America seems doomed from the start.<br><br>In New York, she strives to put down roots. She teaches at a school for underprivileged boys, where her eccentric methods cross boundaries. She befriends a homeless swindler, and the two participate in a pyramid scheme reselling Birkin bags.<br><br>But America is stifling her - her wilfulness, her sexuality, her principles. In an attempt to regain control, she becomes preoccupied with purity, cleanliness and self-image, all while drawing her students into her obsessions. In an unforgettable denouement, her childhood memories converge with her material and existential statelessness and the narrator unravels spectacularly.<br><br>In enthralling, sensory prose,<i> The Coin</i> explores nature and civilisation, beauty and justice, class and belonging - all while resisting easy moralising. Provocative, wry and inviting, <i>The Coin</i> marks the arrival of a major new literary voice.</p>