WINNER OF THE JHALAK PROSE PRIZE 2025
WINNER OF THE GUILD OF FOOD WRITERS AWARD 2025
WINNER OF THE RSL GILES ST AUBYN AWARD FOR NON-FICTION 2022

'Essential' GUARDIAN
'A masterful tapestry' ERICA BERRY
'Raw and dazzling' FOREWORD

N.S. Nuseibeh's ancestor was none other than the legendary Nusayba bint Ka'ab al Khazrajia who fought alongside the Prophet Muhammad at the dawn of Islam. In Namesake, Nuseibeh draws on Nusayba's stories, comparing her experience as an Arab woman today to the distant past, to discover what courage looks like in the context of interminable conflict.

Intimate and thoughtful, these linked essays offer a remarkable exploration of heritage, gender and the idea of home, and demonstrate how connecting with our history can help us understand ourselves and others today.

"At once vulnerable and intellectually rigorous, here is an illuminating and trenchant exploration of Muslim feminism . . . An essential read in the war against lazy stereotypes, cultural annihilation and every form of apartheid" - * Guardian *

"A wonderfully inventive blend of personal insight and contemporary commentary with Islamic history, myth and culture . . . Intuitive and profound" - * Big Issue *

"A raw and dazzling essay collection about identity and how the personal is inseparable from the general" - * Foreword *

"A refreshing, timely read at a time dominated by anger and despair . . . [Nuseibeh] unapologetically considers her own life's struggle as enmeshed in structural violence, rightly placing the individual within a political context" - * Middle East Eye *

"A thoughtful, insightful, recommended collection of essays on Palestinian experiences that connects history with contemporary societies . . . Nuseibeh dispels common stereotypes that many Westerners have about Palestinians, especially Palestinian women" - * Library Journal *