Overview

Readers are rarely lukewarm on Naeem Murr’s work, which has been compared by critics to an astonishing array of greats: Margaret Atwood, Henry James, Joseph Conrad, Flannery O’ Connor, Robert Penn Warren, William Faulker, Vladimir Nabokov, and more. His novels are likely to elicit wonderment, as in “the perfect book” (Business Day, South Africa) and “the best novel I've read in years” (Christian Wiman, author of My Bright Abyss). And in this, his first book in two decades, the conflicts, griefs, and hopes of an immigrant community in a Chicago condo come to represent those of the wounded world we all must share. As a financial crisis looms, Jamal “Jack” Shaban is trying to save his neighbors from bankruptcy. But who is Jack, really? For his flight attendant colleagues, he’s an object of desire, even love, particularly for his sweetly bawdy Wisconsinite best friend, Birdy. Birdy knows nothing about Dimra, Jack’s traditional Muslim wife, with whom Jack is desperate to have a child. Nor does Dimra know about Jack’s attraction to Marcia: an angry single mom new to the building. The resulting tangle of love, desire, and conflict returns Jack to the violence of 1980s Gaza, where a taboo affair nearly destroyed his life. A man of many sides—adulterer, devoted husband, fixer, community leader, liar, and the survivor of human and cosmic cruelty in both the past and the novel’s present—Jack is a paragon of both desire and hope, someone who has committed to love because the alternative is utter darkness. A gorgeous blend of gentle comedy and poignant tragedy, of blasted hopes and one man’s indomitable dedication to the well-being of others, this is a book to love and never forget.

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9781324117902

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Reviews

""A heartbreaking and thrillingly suspenseful story about tragic histories and new beginnings."" -- Jenny Offill, author of Weather ""This is the best novel I’ve read in years, with everything a reader could want: complex characters, political wisdom, comedy, tragedy, soul. Naeem Murr has a particular gift for conveying the intimacies between characters, but his genius is for drawing his readers into the world of these intimacies and lives so vividly they won’t want to leave it."" -- Christian Wiman, author of My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer ""This poignant, at times hilarious, at times tragic, always compelling novel knocked me out. It’s both intimate and expansive, digging deep into the emotional intricacies of love and into the devastation of war and the longing for family and home. As soon as I finished it, I bought the author’s other books, so loathe was I to leave his assured, even brilliant, company."" -- Ayelet Waldman, author of Love and Other Impossible Pursuits ""Urgent, unflinching, and impossible to ignore, Every Exit Brings You Home will linger in the imagination long after the last page."" -- Diana Abujaber, author of Crescent and Fencing with the King ""This fiercely moving novel is a gorgeous account of the parallel tracks we all contain: the one that takes us into the past (and brings the past constantly forward) and the other that moves us through the world we are always in the process of creating. I loved it."" -- Ann Packer, author of The Dive from Clausen’s Pier and The Children’s Crusade ""A great novel: Beautifully written, timely, and as enjoyable as it is heartbreaking."" -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

""A rich and complex portrait of the immigrant experience that has at its center a heartbreaking and thrillingly suspenseful story about tragic histories and new beginnings."" -- Jenny Offill, author of Weather ""This poignant, at times hilarious, at times tragic, always compelling novel knocked me out. It’s both intimate and expansive, digging deep into the emotional intricacies of love and into the devastation of war and the longing for family and home. As soon as I finished it, I bought the author’s other books, so loathe was I to leave his assured, even brilliant, company."" -- Ayelet Waldman, author of Love and Other Impossible Pursuits ""This is the best novel I’ve read in years, with everything a reader could want: complex characters, political wisdom, comedy, tragedy, soul. Naeem Murr has a particular gift for conveying the intimacies between characters, but his genius is for drawing his readers into the world of these intimacies and lives so vividly they won’t want to leave it."" -- Christian Wiman, author of My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer

""A heartbreaking and thrillingly suspenseful story about tragic histories and new beginnings."" -- Jenny Offill, author of Weather ""This is the best novel I’ve read in years, with everything a reader could want: complex characters, political wisdom, comedy, tragedy, soul. Naeem Murr has a particular gift for conveying the intimacies between characters, but his genius is for drawing his readers into the world of these intimacies and lives so vividly they won’t want to leave it."" -- Christian Wiman, author of My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer ""This poignant, at times hilarious, at times tragic, always compelling novel knocked me out. It’s both intimate and expansive, digging deep into the emotional intricacies of love and into the devastation of war and the longing for family and home. As soon as I finished it, I bought the author’s other books, so loathe was I to leave his assured, even brilliant, company."" -- Ayelet Waldman, author of Love and Other Impossible Pursuits ""Urgent, unflinching, and impossible to ignore, Every Exit Brings You Home will linger in the imagination long after the last page."" -- Diana Abujaber, author of Crescent and Fencing with the King ""This fiercely moving novel is a gorgeous account of the parallel tracks we all contain: the one that takes us into the past (and brings the past constantly forward) and the other that moves us through the world we are always in the process of creating. I loved it."" -- Ann Packer, author of The Dive from Clausen’s Pier and The Children’s Crusade ""[Murr] does a masterful job of bridging ordinary and extraordinary experience, achieving an unlikely balance between the stark tragedy of war and the gentle comedy of everyday people struggling with fate... A great novel: Beautifully written, timely, and as enjoyable as it is heartbreaking. A great novel: Beautifully written, timely, and as enjoyable as it is heartbreaking."" -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) ""The much-lauded Murr’s latest work is laden with cultural touchstones—sexuality, gender identity, immigration, and economic inequities... An edgy portrait of self-sacrifice and irreconcilable allegiances."" -- Carol Haggas - Booklist

Author Information

Naeem Murr is the author of three novels, including The Boy (a New York Times Notable Book) and The Perfect Man (longlisted for the Man Booker Prize). A former Stegner Fellow at Stanford, he’s been awarded a regional Commonwealth Writers Prize, a PEN Beyond Margins Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He lives in Chicago.

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