The Skin and its Girl

Locations
Call Number: Fiction / Cypher, Sarah, Adult Book / Fiction / General / Cypher, Sarah
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Malletts Creek Branch, Westgate Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Cypher, Sarah	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Cypher, Sarah	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Cypher, Sarah	4-week checkout	On Shelf

"A young, queer Palestinian American woman pieces together her great aunt's secrets in this sweeping debut, a family saga confronting questions of sexual identity, exile, and lineage. In a Pacific Northwest hospital far from the Rummani family's ancestral home in Palestine, the heart of a stillborn baby begins to beat and her skin turns a vibrant, permanent cobalt blue. On the same day, the Rummanis' centuries-old soap factory in Nablus is destroyed in an air strike. The family matriarch and keeper of all Rummani lore, Aunt Nuha, believes that the blue girl embodies their sacred history, harkening to a time when the Rummanis were among the wealthiest soap-makers and their blue soap was a symbol of a legendary love. Decades later, Betty returns to her Aunt Nuha's gravestone, faced with a difficult decision: Should she stay in the only country she's every known or should she follow her heart for the woman she loves, perpetuating her family's cycle of exile? Betty finds her answer in partially translated notebooks that reveal her aunt's complex life and struggle with her own sexuality, which Nuha hid to help the family emigrate to the U.S. But as Betty soon discovers, her aunt hid much more than that. The Skin and Its Girl is a searing, poetic tale about desire and identity and a provocative exploration of how we let stories divide, unite, and define us-and even wield the power to restore a broken family. Sarah Cypher is that rare debut novelist who writes with the mastery and flair of a seasoned storyteller"-- Provided by publisher.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Strange and wonderful debut submitted by redwood on July 19, 2023, 3:04pm This forthcoming novel was absolutely fascinating. It has a little Rushdie in its preoccupation with narrative structure across continents and generations, but mostly, is like nothing I’ve read before.

The novel is narrated by Betty Rummani, born with skin as blue as her Palestinian family’s famed soap (The soap factory has been destroyed, and some family members think she might be the soul of the soap). The story is told in second-person address to her aunt, Nuha Rummani, who arrives at the hospital when Betty is born and convinces her mother not to give her up for adoption. Nuha is a major force in Betty’s life, advocating for her, protecting her, and eventually serving as a queer role model.

The plot is both epic, with the unraveling of intergenerational dramas that intersect with the changing status of Palestine, and understated, with Betty’s parents’ complicated relationship and her mother’s mental health challenges. When I think back on it, this book was much more about the how than the what. The way the plot is communicated, with layers of narration and lots of metacommentary on the nature of storytelling—both traditional forms from the Arab world and the half-truths that make up families. This tricky structure won’t be for everyone, but I found it to be endlessly interesting.