Full of Heart and Hope: Read an Extract from The Things We See in the Light by Amal Awad

Full of Heart and Hope: Read an Extract from The Things We See in the Light by Amal Awad

If every group has their archetypes – the cool one, the dreamer, the beauty – I’m the boring one. I have one talent: food. My best friend, Samira, is the imaginative dreamer; her cousin Lara is the life-loving wild one. While my friends had growing pains, I suffered a crushing social phobia. I wrapped it up in piety. But I was never racked with the same worries as my friends. You need to have desires and goals to be anxious about how your life’s turning out.

These thoughts flood my mind as I approach the front gate of Lara’s apartment block under a blanket of light rain. Uncertainty flows through me, and I suddenly feel self-conscious about my unexpected arrival. If there’s anyone likely to appreciate spontaneity, it’s Lara, but my body is tense, my nerves tightened like a thousand tiny bows. Seeing her again feels bigger than the choice I made to return home…

Continue reading the extract here…

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          Publisher details

          The Things We See in the Light
          Author
          Amal Awad
          Publisher
          Pantera Press
          Genre
          Fiction
          Released
          31 August, 2021
          ISBN
          9780648676966

          Synopsis

          Eight years ago, Sahar pursued her happily ever after when she married Khaled and followed him to Jordan, leaving behind her family, her friends and a thriving cake business. But married life didn't go as planned and, haunted by secrets, Sahar has returned home to Sydney without telling her husband. With the help of her childhood friends, Sahar hits the reset button on her life. She takes a job at a local patisserie run by Maggie, a strong but kind manager who guides Sahar in sweets and life. But as she tentatively gets to know her colleagues, Sahar faces a whole new set of challenges. There's Kat and Inez, who are determined that Sahar try new experiences. Then there's Luke, a talented chocolatier and a bundle of contradictions. As Sahar embraces the new, she reinvents herself, trying things once forbidden to her. But just when she is finally starting to find her feet, her past finds its way back to her.
          Amal Awad
          About the author

          Amal Awad

          Amal Awad is a journalist, screenwriter, author and performer. She has contributed to ELLEFrankieMeanjin, Going Down Swinging, Daily Life, Sheilas, SBS Life and Junkee. As well, Amal has produced and presented for ABC Radio National and has held senior editorial roles at a number of trade publications. Amal is a public speaker, appearing at schools, universities and writers’ festivals around Australia. She presents workshops on storytelling and creativity, has been a regular panellist on ABC TV’s The Drum and was a TEDx Macquarie speaker in 2019. Amal is the author of two novels – Courting Samira and This is How You Get Better – and the non-fiction books The Incidental Muslim, Beyond Veiled Clichés: The Real Lives of Arab Women and Fridays With My Folks: Stories on Ageing, Illness and Life. She has also contributed to the anthologies Growing Up Muslim in Australia: Coming of Age and Some Girls Do …: My Life as a Teenager. Her next non-fiction book, In My Past Life I was Cleopatra, will be published by Murdoch Books in 2020. As a screenwriter, Amal has several film and television projects in development. She has also directed short films, a pursuit she continues alongside writing and performing.

          Books by Amal Awad

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