Home Is Not a Country

Content Warning: This section depicts racism, Islamophobia, and hate crimes.

The first-person protagonist, Nima, begins the novel in verse with a poem entitled “The Photograph,” which describes a picture of Nima’s parents before she was born. In “Baba,” photographs of Nima’s father litter their home, capturing his life before the tragic car accident that took his life back in the family’s homeland. (Although not explicitly stated, the country is widely believed to be Sudan.) Nima longs for the father she never had. In “Mama,” Nima adores one photograph of her mother, Aisha, on her wedding day, which contrasts with the woman she knows now, who is alone in a new country working tirelessly each day. Nima keeps this photograph tucked away in a tin box.

Next, “Haitham” outlines the friendship between Nima and Haitham, the son of her mother’s oldest friend, Hala. Compared to Nima, who keeps to herself at school, Haitham is social. On Sundays, Nima and Haitham attend Arabic classes. When Nima is teased at school because of her clothes and the fact that her mother wears a headscarf, she imagines herself in a