A bold and unabashed novel about a young Palestinian w oman'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 The Coin's narrator is a w ealthy Palestinian w oman w ith 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.
In New York, she strives to put dow n roots. She teaches at a school for underprivileged boys, w here her eccentric methods cross boundaries. She befriends a homeless sw indler, and the tw o participate in a pyramid scheme reselling Birkin bags.
But America is stifling her - her w ilfulness, her sexuality, her principles. In an attempt to regain control, she becomes preoccupied w ith purity, cleanliness and self-image, all w hile draw ing her students into her obsessions. In an unforgettable denouement, her childhood memories converge w ith her material and existential statelessness and the narrator unravels spectacularly.
In enthralling, sensory prose, The Coin explores nature and civilisation, beauty and justice, class and belonging - all w hile resisting easy moralising. Provocative, wry and inviting, The Coin marks the arrival of a major new literary voice.
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