Laila Lalami's Blog, page 2

Conditional Citizens in Paperback

I can’t believe it’s been a year since my last update! My collection of essays, Conditional Citizens, comes out in paperback on October 19. The beautiful cover design is by Isabel Urbina Peña, who also designed the paperback cover for The Other Americans. I love hardcovers, but honestly most of my books are paperbacks; they’re light and portable and I find it less sacrilegious to scribble notes all over the pages. Anyway, I hope you’ll suggest Conditional Citizens to your book club, add it to your class reading it list, or buy a copy for yourself or a friend. The pandemic continues to affect supply chains, so if you’re thinking of giving it as a gift for the holidays, you should consider pre-ordering your copy now.

Over the last few months, I’ve also written a few pieces that have since appeared in print. I reviewed Matt Salesses’s Craft in the Real World, which I found to be “a significant contribution to discussions of the art of fiction and a necessary challenge to received views about whose stories are told, how they are told, and for whom they are intended.”

More recently, I wrote an essay on the trauma of 9/11, the wars that followed, and the malleability of memory for the New York Times Sunday Review. In it, I reflect on how the United States built a national memory around what happened, and what this memory leaves out: “The story America told about itself after Sept. 11 was one of heroism and resilience in the aftermath of a brutal attack; the invasion of other countries, and the interruption of their political destinies, had no place in it.” This piece was tough to write. I’m very grateful to those of you who’ve shared it on social media and emailed me about it.

I’ve also been busy with press in support of foreign translations of The Other Americans. After delays caused by the pandemic, the novel came out in quick succession in German, Dutch, Farsi, and Arabic. I continue to do bookstore events, college classes, and festival appearances in support of this book.

As always, I hope you’re staying healthy.

Press, Essays, etc.

Thank you to all who attended my tour events online this month! For those of you who want to hear more about Conditional Citizens, I wanted to highlight a few interviews I did for the fall promotional tour: I spoke with Noel King for NPR’s Morning Edition, Georgina Godwin for Monocle 24, Carolyn Kellogg for Shondaland, JR Ramakrishnan for Electric Literature, and Joel Stein for Soul Pancake’s Show Your Shelf. I also had a conversation with the playwright and novelist Ayad Akhtar for the Los Angeles Times Book Review about fiction, nonfiction, and the present moment. Elsewhere, I talked to Audible about Conditional Citizens and the process of recording the audiobook myself. (Link coming soon.)

In writing news, I wrote a piece for the New York Times Style on tchotchkes and other objects of comfort I’ve accumulated over thirty years of living between countries. The essay accompanied photographs by the artist Leonard Suryajaya and later served as a prompt for the NYT Learning Network. And heading into the 2020 presidential election, I wrote a letter to non-voters for PEN America’s We Will Emerge project.

I’m also delighted to share that Conditional Citizens was included on the longlist for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. I hope you’ll consider buying a copy, suggesting it to your book club, or assigning it your students. If you’ve read it, perhaps you will consider telling a friend about it or leaving a review online? As always, thanks for your support.

That’s all I have for now. I hope you and your loved ones are staying safe and healthy. Don’t forget to vote!

Fall Update

My new book, Conditional Citizens, comes out on September 22nd. It’s about belonging and unbelonging in the United States, an experience I know I share with many of you and that can be especially intense these days. An adapted excerpt appears in this weekend’s New York Times Magazine. I hope you’ll take a look and add the book to your reading list.

Conditional Citizens was included in many fall preview lists, including the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time, Entertainment Weekly, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. In the weeks before publication, I did an interview with Tom Beer for the cover story of Kirkus Reviews.

In other news, my most recent novel, The Other Americans, won the Arab American Book Award in fiction. In France, it made the longlist of the Grand Prix de littérature américaine. (The French translation was completed by Aurélie Tronchet.) New audio recordings of Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits and Secret Son, voiced by the actor Fajer al-Kaisi, were released by Penguin Random House Audio.

In the last few weeks, I’ve been spending a lot less time online; it may take me a while to read or respond to emails and queries. I hope you’re all staying healthy, and that you’re managing to remain sane during this pandemic.

Summer News

So much book stuff has happened since my last post! I wrote a new short story, “That Time At My Brother’s Wedding,” which appeared in the New York Times Magazine‘s first all-fiction issue. Contributors include Margaret Atwood, Edwidge Danticat, Victor Lavalle, Mia Couto, Kamila Shamsie, Rachel Kushner, among others. Earlier this month, my novel The Other Americans was named a finalist for the California Book Award, which was both unexpected and delightful. (There will be no live ceremony this year, though, for obvious reasons.) And before that, my first novel, Hope and Other Dangerous Dangerous Pursuits, which was originally published by Algonquin in 2005, was reissued with a handsome new cover.

In other news, the Dutch edition of The Moor’s Account, titled La Florida, will be published by Nieuw Amsterdam in August 2020. I’m very excited about this release because that book is so special to me. Elsewhere, the French edition of The Other Americans, titled Les Autres américains, will be published by Editions Christian Bourgeois in September 2020. I’m so disappointed that I won’t be able to visit France, Belgium, and the Netherlands as planned, but my hope is that travel will be possible again next summer. In the meantime, all my events are virtual.

(Photo credit: New York Times Magazine)

Spring Update

Before the coronavirus pandemic disrupted all our lives, I was supposed to be touring to promote the paperback edition of The Other Americans, with stops in Berkeley, Pasadena, Minneapolis, Grand Forks, Arlington, New York, and Cincinnati. None of that happened, of course. We’re now seven weeks into our quarantine. Where possible, I’ve connected with readers through Zoom, which has opened up book events to people who are in different cities at once. I’m happy to engage in this way, though it doesn’t feel quite the same as a live event.

The paperback tour was to be followed by the April launch of my nonfiction book, Conditional Citizens, and tour stops in Los Angeles, New York, Greensboro, Green Bay, Ann Arbor, Madison, St. Louis, Tulsa, Tempe, Santa Fe, Washington DC, Harrisburg, and Dallas. But given that most bookstores are shuttered, my publisher decided to postpone the hardcover release until September 2020. Some things can’t be delayed, though. The April issue of Harper’s, which includes a long excerpt from Conditional Citizens, came out as scheduled, as did the May issue of Alta Magazine, which has both an excerpt and a review. Sierra Magazine also ran a review, as did the Los Angeles Review of Books.

If these early reviews of Conditional Citizens spark your interest, perhaps you’ll consider pre-ordering a copy.

I’m a firm believer that books are never late. The reading experience is not lessened by having to wait a few months more for it. In the meantime, I hope you’re staying home if you’re able, and that you’re all safe and healthy.

Dispatch from Self-Quarantine

“Disease did not discriminate,” I wrote in my novel, The Moor’s Account. Based on a true story, the book chronicles the journey of a Spanish expedition to Florida in 1528, from the point of view of a Moroccan slave who has been brought to the new world by his master. Within weeks, the men contract dysentery and begin to die, whether from infection or from their attempts to escape the unfamiliar landscape of America. “[Disease] could strike the rich as well as the poor, the brave as well as the coward, the wise as well as the fool. Disease leveled all the differences between us and united us in a single abiding fear.”

In our modern world, where massive populations of people live in high-density areas and depend on a global economy for survival, disease can spread just as fast as in 1528, just as indiscriminately. But the costs of the COVID-19 pandemic will not be borne equally by all. Once disease spreads and quarantine becomes mandatory, the poor, the elderly, the immune-compromised, the disabled, the uninsured, the incarcerated and the detained will be hit much harder.

The coronavirus pandemic is an argument for why we need social rights, like universal healthcare, a living wage, sick leave, and free education. Imagine for a moment how the pandemic would’ve unfolded if Americans could see a doctor for free at the first sign of symptoms. Imagine if workers who are diagnosed could immediately take leave from their jobs without fear of lost wages. Imagine if students did not have to worry that an additional semester in college would mean adding tens of thousands of dollars to their mounting debt.

The mention of social rights usually triggers howls of “How will we pay for it”? But the correct question is “Who will pay for it?” In 2017, the Trump administration passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which lowered taxes for corporations, whose rate went from 35% to 21%. It was the biggest one-time reduction in corporate tax in American history. But as the budget deficit ballooned, it soon became clear who would pay for these tax cuts. Last year, for example, Trump proposed cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

The COVID-19 pandemic will worsen all of the problems that fester in U.S. society right now: expensive healthcare, income inequality, mass incarceration, immigration detention, etc. We need a national guarantee of social rights. The time to act is now.

Hello, 2020

New year, new book! Here’s the cover for my upcoming book of nonfiction, Conditional Citizens. It’s about the experience of inequality and exclusion in the United States and I wrote it for everyone who’s ever felt, or been made to feel, like they didn’t belong in this country. Thanks to Viet Thanh Nguyen, Maaza Mengiste, Pankaj Mishra, and Kiese Laymon for their kind words about it. Details and preorder info at this link. 

Bye, 2019

The Other Americans had a pretty good year. It was named a finalist for the Kirkus Prize and the National Book Award, was a Los Angeles Times bestseller, and made best-of-year lists at NPR, Time, Variety, the Washington Post, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and many others. Translation rights were sold in the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, Romania, and China. But this year was also marked for me by the loss of my beloved mother-in-law, the passing of one of my heroes, and some health troubles. So it goes. I’m looking forward to winter break, when I’ll get to spend some time with my family and enjoy some time offline. Thank you all, dear readers, for your support these past few months. Happy holidays!

The Other Americans Named A Finalist for the National Book Award & the Kirkus Prize

I started writing The Other Americans as a way to find narrative order in the chaos of ideas and emotions that were swirling around in me about immigration and exile, alienation from the self and others, families and communities. It has been a long journey, with a lot of ups and downs. By the time I held the finished book in my hands, I felt a sense of accomplishment. Everything else that happened after that has been the proverbial cherry on the cake. So it was especially thrilling to hear that The Other Americans made it onto the shortlist for both the Kirkus Prize and the National Book Award in Fiction. My heart is full.

(Illustration by Katherine Moffett for Vanity Fair.)

Los Angeles Times Book Club

Friends, I’m delighted to share with you that the Los Angeles Times picked The Other Americans for its book club this July! You can read an excerpt from the novel, a review by Michael Schaub, some questions for book club discussion, and more at the Times. Then on July 30, I will be in conversation with Lorraine Ali at Skirball Cultural Center. Tickets are available here. See you then!

(image credit: Los Angeles Times)