Daughter of the Mountains: poems of heartbreak & homecoming

by Fatimah Asghar

A tender, searching collection of poems that breaks open notions of faith to ask how a daughter, alienated from kin, can find love and a home in the world, from the award-winning author of If They Come for Us and When We Were Sisters

at the edge of an edge
is an edge. at that edge
is a cliff. beyond that cliff
is me.

Exiled from ancestral homelands, how can one find a place for themself in the world? In this stunning sophomore collection, the acclaimed poet Fatimah Asghar unweaves residual grief to reckon with their relationship to Allah, long-estranged but deeply loved kin, the landscape of their ancestors, and love itself.

In meditative poems, Daughter of the Mountains grapples with multiple facets of fulfillment, betrayal, love, loss, and longing, illustrating how place, lineage, and environment inform the practice of spirituality and vice versa. With wisps of humor, imagery that is as beautiful as it is startling, and powerfully disruptive formal invention, this is an intimately lyrical and explosive collection.

Genres: Poetry

192 pages, Paperback

Expected publication July 7, 2026

About the author

Poet, screenwriter, educator, and performer Fatimah Asghar is a Pakistani, Kashmiri, Muslim American writer. She is the author of the poetry collection If They Should Come for Us and the chapbook After. She is also the writer and co-creator of the Emmy-nominated Brown Girls, a web series that highlights friendships between women of color. Her work has been featured on news outlets such as PBS, NPR, Time, Teen Vogue, Huffington Post, and others.

Reviews

[Melody Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another strong collection from Fatimah Asghar. Asghar’s poetry digs deep into identity, reckoning with place and belief in remarkable ways. I am biased toward poetry that is relatable while also playing with language in interesting ways. Most of Asghar’s poems fit this mold; they are particularly adept at manipulating form, even more so than ITCFU. I’m trying to avoid sounding like a whiny culture-less white American, but I found this collection a bit less “approachable” as If They Come For Us (and here I add my self-centered complaint that I would give anything for poems about particular events/places/people to come with epigraphs; only one in this particular collection does). Inevitably, one walks away from Asghar’s work with more questions and interest in issues like partition; I can’t fault them for this, certainly. Overall, a worthwhile collection. There are some truly outstanding poems here. Some of my favorites include…

[from]
- Their command of form!

[when i say]
- Master of structure.

[february in lahore]
- A love poem, especially these lines:
“oh, Allah, bring me to them, another
one i can love for a little while longer, in this world where
they bomb, where they gun, where they end, where another
child is called a martyr & those that could stop it looked away.
in this world where we’re taught to fear, to flee, to fight another
at the end, i want nothing more than you—an other,
you, another moment, another who i chose, another
who i walk with. fill my cup with another.
& when that’s done, another, again.”

[when we thought the world would end]
- A pandemic poem for now.

[here we are]
- Humanity in her terrible paradoxes.

[cursed]
- That opening, man:
“point one finger
& three turn back to you
the saying goes, so i’ll
point my whole fucking
hand, open-palmed & up
to Allah, like what do you
want me to do with this
little bitch you made?”

[& what a miracle]
- About bodies, beautifully universal.

[you]
- A fitting ending, my favorite poem of the entire collection.

*ARC via NetGalley

[Ally Ang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to One World and NetGalley for the ARC.
Fatimah Asghar was one of my first favorite poets when I was first falling in love with poetry, before they had even published their debut, so I have been long awaiting and highly anticipating their sophomore poetry collection. There is a lot to love and admire in this expansive collection, which traverses borders and generations, exploring themes from familial (re)connection to colonial violence & erasure to apocalypse & pandemic to moving through heartbreak & rage and so much more. This expansiveness, while rich and abundant, also works to the book's detriment in my opinion--I felt that the first three sections of the book were far stronger and more formally and thematically compelling than the last two, and I felt that this book may have functioned better and felt more cohesive as two separate collections. But a life is rarely cohesive and easily categorizable, so I respect the decision to structure the book this way. Overall, I really enjoyed this collection, and certain poems (such as [from] and [museum]) are ones that I will return to, study, and teach for a long time.

[2raccoonsinacoat · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was evocative and edgy but, ultimately, I struggled to resonate with it. I don’t think this is because there is anything wrong with the poetry (a lot of it was really beautiful)—I just think the writing style and topics were too outside of my arena. The choppy sentence structure, blackouts, and bracketing may work for others but it disrupted the flow for me (although I think I would have enjoyed it more in print vs digital). She also uses a fair bit of her native language which is very beautiful, but I didn’t feel moved to keep looking up the translation. I enjoyed the critical eye she had for place, belief, and identity. The poems about betrayal and love were raw in a way that really speaks to her abilities. I think this would probably be a really enjoyable collection to a lot of people.

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for providing an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Rhiley Jade · Rating 5 out of 5]

I ended up highlighting a majority of the poems. I couldn't help it, they were TOO good.
Fatimah Asghar has a way with words that will leave you breathless and in awe, while also giving you both dread and potential hope for the future of our world.
She speaks on familial loss, the genocide, ICE, displacement, love, failed relationships, Mother Earth, COVID, and even mental health. This poetry book has a bit of everything.
The prose is satisfying just to read inside your head, but I found myself going back and reading a few aloud to see how they'd taste. And that was an even better experience. Her words resonated inside me and made a place in my soul.
I will absolutely be reading whatever this author comes out with next! I look forward to it!

Thank you to NetGalley for this E-Arc in exchange for an honest review.

[Lisa Penninga · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Asghar’s collections of poetry, and this one is just as good as her others! This one carries themes of
family, loss, Pakistan laws and conflicts, love, grief, and personifies the mountains throughout the poetry. I love how she includes details that help the reader understand the poem or theme by including historical context and facts. Some of the language in the collection would be hard to use in my classroom, but I definitely found some poems I would want to include. Asghar’s use of blacking out words throughout the collection makes for a unique analysis point as well!

[Nuha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Random House and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!

Available July 2026.

In her newest collection of poetry, Fatimah Asghar traverses terrains of love, loss, family, longing, and draws parallels between her family story in Kashmir to the current day situation in Gaza. She beckons us to consider what is holy and what is woman, who is left out of the stories we tell ourselves to survive, and the many forms of love, including grief. I loved the experimental forms and the use of brackets to carve out intentional space and borders throughout the book.

[Ambi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a stunning book of poetry. I really enjoy Asghar’s unique style and the breadth of topics covered in this collection. Some of the standout poems for me were [still life, interrupted by border], [what existed before?], and [of course]. I look forward to picking up more of her poetry!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

[Liralen]

3.5 stars; review to come July 2026