Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “The Thirty Names of Night” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

The Thirty Names of Night

Zeyn Joukhadar (Goodreads Author)

3.85 · Rating details · 174 ratings · 83 reviews

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2020 by The Millions and Electric Literature
Named a Best Book of Fall by USA TODAY and PopSugar

The author of the “vivid and urgent…important and timely” (The New York Times Book Review) debut The Map of Salt and Stars returns with this remarkably moving and lyrical novel following three generations of Syrian Americans who are linked by a Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2020 by The Millions and Electric Literature
Named a Best Book of Fall by USA TODAY and PopSugar

The author of the “vivid and urgent…important and timely” (The New York Times Book Review) debut The Map of Salt and Stars returns with this remarkably moving and lyrical novel following three generations of Syrian Americans who are linked by a mysterious species of bird and the truths they carry close to their hearts.

Five years after a suspicious fire killed his ornithologist mother, a closeted Syrian American trans boy sheds his birth name and searches for a new one. He has been unable to paint since his mother’s ghost has begun to visit him each evening. As his grandmother’s sole caretaker, he spends his days cooped up in their apartment, avoiding his neighborhood masjid, his estranged sister, and even his best friend (who also happens to be his longtime crush). The only time he feels truly free is when he slips out at night to paint murals on buildings in the once-thriving Manhattan neighborhood known as Little Syria.

One night, he enters the abandoned community house and finds the tattered journal of a Syrian American artist named Laila Z, who dedicated her career to painting the birds of North America. She famously and mysteriously disappeared more than sixty years before, but her journal contains proof that both his mother and Laila Z encountered the same rare bird before their deaths. In fact, Laila Z’s past is intimately tied to his mother’s—and his grandmother’s—in ways he never could have expected. Even more surprising, Laila Z’s story reveals the histories of queer and transgender people within his own community that he never knew. Realizing that he isn’t and has never been alone, he has the courage to officially claim a new name: Nadir, an Arabic name meaning rare.

As unprecedented numbers of birds are mysteriously drawn to the New York City skies, Nadir enlists the help of his family and friends to unravel what happened to Laila Z and the rare bird his mother died trying to save. Following his mother’s ghost, he uncovers the silences kept in the name of survival by his own community, his own family, and within himself, and discovers the family that was there all along.

Featuring Zeyn Joukhadar’s signature “magical and heart-wrenching” (The Christian Science Monitor) storytelling, The Thirty Names of Night is a timely exploration of how we all search for and ultimately embrace who we are. ...more

Get A Copy

Hardcover, 304 pages

Published November 24th 2020 by Atria Books

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about The Thirty Names of Night, please sign up.

Be the first to ask a question about The Thirty Names of Night

Lists with This Book

The Millions' Most Anticipated: The Great Second-Half 2020 Book Preview (September - December)

70 books — 138 voters

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

Anticipated 2020 Literary Fiction

564 books — 1,393 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 3.85 ·

Rating details

· 174 ratings · 83 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of The Thirty Names of Night

May 24, 2020 Will Byrnes rated it it was amazing

Shelves: coming-of-age, fiction, gay-and-lesbian, immigration, historical-fiction, lgbtq, literary-fiction, books-of-the-year-2020, new-york-city, brooklyn

“What did they see, Mama?” I murmured to her. “What was it that came to meet the birds that flew into the west? ”
…My mother turned her face to me over her shoulder. “What came,” she said, “was night, and all its names.”

---------------------------------------

…not all migrations end with a return home. Every memory begins to cut if you hold onto it too tight.

Reading Zeyn Joukhadar’s The Thirty Names of Night is like walking through an incredibly rich and diverse aviary. Our attention is dr ...more

flag 209 likes · Like · see review

Sep 03, 2020 Karen rated it liked it · review of another edition

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books.

There was a LOT going on here.. too much, actually.
I found myself skimming through much of it.
It’s a story of immigrants, a transgender trying to belong, ghosts, the history of the “little Syria” area of New York, art, and birds... yes, lots of birds 🤦‍♀️
It started out good with the story of a young Syrian women who lost her mother in a fire five yrs prior.. she lives in New York with her grandmother and is taking care of her. This young woman does not feel ...more

flag 70 likes · Like · see review

Oct 24, 2020 Liz rated it really liked it

Shelves: netgalley

3.5 stars, rounded up
It’s hard to describe this book. As others have said, there’s a lot going on here. A closeted trans Syrian American boy in America discovers the journal of a Syrian American artist and discovers a link with his dead mother.
This is a lush, beautifully written book. We hear from two different narrators. The trans young man, whose chapters initially have the name crossed out, is haunted by his dead mother. His mother, who was an ornithologist, was trying to find a bird others ...more

flag 39 likes · Like · see review

Aug 19, 2020 Cheri rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: immigration, literary-fiction, art, nyc, arc, 2020, historical-fiction, netgalley, lgbtq, art-world

This story begins exactly five years after the loss of the narrator’s mother, and on this night New York City will see forty-eight sparrows fall from the sky. The narrator sits on the roof of Teta’s, his grandmother, apartment building, observing the sky as birds drop, individually, one at a time. Thinking of his mother, how everything since then has changed, how even their grieving has changed, and how it has changed them. The remnants of her life that she left behind have become so precious, h
This story begins exactly five years after the loss of the narrator’s mother, and on this night New York City will see forty-eight sparrows fall from the sky. The narrator sits on the roof of Teta’s, his grandmother, apartment building, observing the sky as birds drop, individually, one at a time. Thinking of his mother, how everything since then has changed, how even their grieving has changed, and how it has changed them. The remnants of her life that she left behind have become so precious, he hides the things she left behind, the tokens that were so prized by her have become their only tangible means of remembering, and of grieving.

The narrator goes unnamed for a while, a young transgender boy who eventually chooses his new name as Nadir, an Arabic name meaning rare. And while this is, essentially, a story about him and his journey as an artist as well as the journey to becoming himself, it is also the story of the struggles of all transgender people who wish to be accepted, as well as all immigrants who also see themselves as excluded from being among those self-designated as “we the people.” Particularly, in this story, Syrian immigrants, their struggles, and those of their descendants.

There is a haunting quality to this story, both through the lyrical, poetic quality of the writing and the story itself, the ongoing dialogue to the narrator’s mother, the discoveries that are revealed as this story is unveiled, and the search for more understanding of who his mother was beyond being only his mother also leads him to a discovery of a diary kept by his mother’s favourite artist, a woman who was known for her illustrations of birds. When he discovers the artist’s journal in an old tenement building, he discovers so much more than he anticipated.

This is such a thought-provoking story, connecting so many aspects of life, of living a life that feels honest to how we see ourselves – who we are, of these invisible connections we come across unexpectedly to others, to our culture and family histories, the connections that we create that allow us to more fully embrace ourselves, our lives. Life.

An aura of a poetic, inspired folktale permeates these pages, the prose creates such a moving atmosphere that really never seems to fade, but instead intensifies as this story unfolds.

A dazzlingly enchanted story about living your truth, and discovering the beauty that can be found.

Pub Date: 03 Nov 2020

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Atria Books
...more

flag 29 likes · Like · see review

Aug 08, 2020 Martie Nees Record rated it liked it

Genre: LGBTQ/Historical Fiction
Publisher: Atria Books
Pub. Date: November 3, 2020

There is so much going on in this beautifully written novel. You will meet artists and three generations of Syrian American women. You will learn about French-occupied Syria during the early twentieth century, as well as a long-forgotten NYC neighborhood called Little Syria. You will also read about birds and ghosts. The author mixes up the genres. There is historical fiction, literary fiction, magical realism, comin ...more

flag 19 likes · Like · see review

Oct 31, 2020 DeAnn rated it liked it

Shelves: 2020

3.5 avian stars

I picked this one up because I really enjoyed the author’s first book “The Map of Salt and Tears.” This book has the same lyrical quality but otherwise is difficult to describe. I did enjoy learning more about Syrian Americans.

This book is set in New York and features a trans boy who is uncomfortable in his body and identity. His mother died five years before and he still sees her ghost everywhere. There are so many birds in this book! I’m not sure if they were all real birds or i ...more

flag 15 likes · Like · see review

Apr 08, 2020 Sarah-Hope rated it it was amazing

Shelves: edelweissplus, essentials, 2020

The Thirty Names of Nights is one of those books that leaves you in tears (the good kind) and makes you keep saying to those around you (if they're the patient type) "thank G-d THIS writer was born to write THIS book NOW." It's peopled with the kind of complex, diverse individuals that show up far too rarely in contemporary fiction. The cast is multi-generational, mostly Syrian-American, living in post-9/11 New York City when immigrant hopes of being embraced as part of society-at-large have bee ...more

flag 11 likes · Like · see review

Nov 17, 2020 Bam cooks the books ;-) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020-reads, magical-realism, lgbt, 2020-netgalley

'I have been waiting all my life to be seen.'

This is the story of three generations of Arab-Americans told through two timelines and through the experiences of a young trans man and a talented artist named Laila. Their two stories are intertwined in the novel, joined by their love for art and ornithology. The book is beautifully written with fascinating, heart-breaking characters. Joukhadar writes about the Arab-American experience but also about finding one's personal identity. 'I am a fool. I ...more

flag 12 likes · Like · see review

Jun 07, 2020 Lilisa rated it really liked it

Shelves: around-the-world-2020-lilisa, 2020, fiction, netgalley, u-s, lgbtq

I loved the overall themes and the storyline of Zeyn Joukhadar’s second book! The main character is a trans Syrian-American boy who takes care of his beloved aged grandmother in a New York City apartment. Five years ago, he lost his ornithologist mother in a fire in a building Now, her ghost visits him in the evenings. With her death still encompassing him and the weight of his own life’s journey as a trans boy, he spends lonely hours in his apartment, stepping out in the evenings with close fri I loved the overall themes and the storyline of Zeyn Joukhadar’s second book! The main character is a trans Syrian-American boy who takes care of his beloved aged grandmother in a New York City apartment. Five years ago, he lost his ornithologist mother in a fire in a building Now, her ghost visits him in the evenings. With her death still encompassing him and the weight of his own life’s journey as a trans boy, he spends lonely hours in his apartment, stepping out in the evenings with close friends who are part of his tribe. When he finds the journal of Laila, a Syrian-American artist who vanished sixty years ago in the community building, we are presented with a second storyline - and chapters go back and forth between now and then (similar the author’s The Map of Salt and Stars- except that novel’s time gap is hundreds of years apart). Coincidentally, both his mother and Laila seemed to have experienced the same rare bird - years apart. As he undergoes his very personal journey of moving in his trans world, he follows the mysterious trail of Laila and her world leading to the intersection of their collective communities and worlds. As the story unfolds, community is an essential ingredient in both past and present - we learn about the Syrian-American community in the U.S. and the strong bonds of Syrian-American families - home life, socialization, livelihoods, and religious. Throughout the book, the imagery of birds plays an important role - whether it’s the sighting of a bird or birds before an event, a precious feather, or a bird “accident” - all are symbolic and add to the cadence of the story. While I enjoyed all aspects of the book, there was a lot going on at any given time that it felt it was sometimes overflowing at the seams with all that the author wanted to share. It’s probably why I felt that this book didn’t move as seamlessly and as perfectly as The Map of Salt and Stars, which I loooved and have listened to three times! Having said that, it shouldn’t take away from the book, which is definitely a well-deserved read and one I would recommend. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.
...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Mar 19, 2020 Paul rated it liked it

Thank you, Netgalley and Atria Books, for giving me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

If I rated books based on good intentions, five stars wouldn't be enough for "The Thirty Names of Night." Mr. Joukhadar wants to celebrate the Muslim trans/LBGT community, honor immigrants of color, mourn a lost New York demolished in the name of progress, and educate the reader about the many spectacular species of birds in both the Middle East and North America, and probably a cou ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

May 06, 2020 Mel (Epic Reading) marked it as to-read

Shelves: arc-netgalley

I loved Map of Salt and Stars. Really excited for this one! And I was fortunate enough to get an eARC.

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Oct 07, 2020 Casey the Reader rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, lgbtq

Thanks to Atria Books for the free advance copy of this book.

📚 Beautiful writing, particularly the descriptions of birds and the paintings of them.
📚 This is an #ownvoices book, and the portrayal of a trans boy who isn't out yet feels so real - the delicacy of the situation is tangible.
📚 The way the two storylines interweaved was masterful, and I was in tears at the end.
📚 I don't think I've ever read a story about a queer Syrian American and I'm so glad this book exists now.
📚 I just cannot find ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Jan 07, 2020 Rox marked it as to-read

Shelves: 2020-release, lgbtq

Ya'll...I cannot wait for this book to come out!
It sounds incredible and just wow. If Map of Salt and Stars is anything to go by, I think the Thirty Names of Night is going to be heartbreaking with beautiful language.

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Apr 01, 2020 Kerry Pickens rated it liked it

Shelves: read-2020

This book is very lyrical and poetic, but the plot is sketchy and hard to follow. It is not clear that the main character is transgender or what the significance of the found book is. The street scenes of New York are interesting but the storyline is too vague and slow moving to keep my attention.

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Nov 19, 2020 Marzie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: arc-net-galley

Trying to summarize this novel would be futile because any attempt wouldn't capture the lyrical nature of Joukhadar's writing, or his seemingly effortless ability, as in his first novel, A Map of Salt and Stars to find connections or mirrors between past and present, but I'll give it a shot.

With The Thirty Names of Night Zeyn Joukhadar confirms his standing as a powerful Arab American writer. In a layered and luminous novel, Joukhadar gives voice to multiple generations living the Arab immig ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Nov 13, 2020 sarah added it

thank you to libro.fm for providing me with an early audiobook copy of this EXTRAORDINARY story! this book tackles so many topics and it does it with so much grace, weaving our main character’s coming out process with stories of the past. it talks about transphobia, gentrification, connection, religion, racism, queer love, and birds. i can’t recommend this book enough- be fully prepared to feel all the feelings. while the audiobook is done very well and i loved the narration, i feel like i misse ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

May 04, 2020 Fanna marked it as to-read · review of another edition

May 1, 2020: Featured in Fanticipating Reads of May 2020!

✔ features three generations of Syrian-Americans
✔ mystery around birds
✔ trans boy protagonist
✔ mother’s ghost guides her son, Nadir, to unravel the mysteries around a rare bird
✔ ‘important themes of migration, sexuality, belonging, and love.’ ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Sep 05, 2020 Lisa Konet added it

Shelves: cover-art, do-not-read-dont-bother, dont-believe-hype, recommendation-reader, lit-fict, no, netgalley, awful-dislike-or-dnf, popular

-1 too much happening
-1 Arabic customs/lifestyle not explained well
-1 story all over the place
+1 descriptions/imagery
+1 cover

I really wanted to love this book but it was struggle. The cover art is great and the title is catching. However, the book takes place largely in the Little Syria section of NYC with customs and culture that are not explained well are vague AF. The only saving grace as to why I suffered on hoping this would improve is the imagery. Transsexuals, ghosts, many birds; it was a ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Nov 11, 2020 Jade rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2020, nyc, must-read, amazing, netgalley, immigration-stories, current-events, lgbtqia, fiction, love

I put off starting this book for too long because I knew that once I started it I wouldn’t be able to stop, and I knew that all too soon it would be over, and I would be left craving more. I absolutely loved Zeyn Joukhadar’s first novel The Map of Salt and Stars, it still haunts me today, the parallel storylines, the epic descriptions, the words that made my heart hurt, and fly at the same time. So obviously I was overjoyed when I saw that his second novel would be released this year. And it is I put off starting this book for too long because I knew that once I started it I wouldn’t be able to stop, and I knew that all too soon it would be over, and I would be left craving more. I absolutely loved Zeyn Joukhadar’s first novel The Map of Salt and Stars, it still haunts me today, the parallel storylines, the epic descriptions, the words that made my heart hurt, and fly at the same time. So obviously I was overjoyed when I saw that his second novel would be released this year. And it is just as beautiful, just as heartbreaking, and just as epic as his first, all the while completely different. The Thirty Names of Night is going to be my number one favorite read this year, just like The Map of Salt and Stars was my favorite of 2018 (and 2019 because I read it again last year).

The Thirty Names of Night is ultimately a story of discovery and self-acceptance. I don’t want to give it all away in my review, but it’s hard to describe the overall storyline without telling part of the plot. It is the story of Nadir, a young person of Syrian descent, whose mother’s death in a fire five years before still haunts him (so much that he constantly sees her ghost in his daily life). Nadir’s mother was an ornithologist who documented rare Northern American birds, and who had been trying to convince others of her sighting of a bird so rare that barely anyone believed it existed. Woven into Nadir’s story is also the story of Laila Z, brilliant artist of birds, Syrian immigrant to the US in the early 20th century, who disappeared 40 years earlier never to be seen again. Nadir makes it his mission to uncover the mystery of the bird, thereby keeping his mother’s spirit close, and in doing so discovers the secrets of Laila Z’s life and disappearance. But the overall arch to this story is Nadir’s transformation and self-acceptance, at first hiding the body that doesn’t represent what he feels inside, and then finally ready to accept who he really is.

There is so much depth in each story, and every detail matters, right down to the names of each character: how names carry importance, whether they are our personal choice or that of another. I love how the author describes the setting, each description reminds me of my own life in NYC, walking, smelling, hearing… Zeyn Joukhadar has this amazing ability to paint a moving picture with words, weaving past, present and different characters together, to create these beautifully deep and real stories that don’t leave you. Birds are such a huge, integral part of this book, and I love how they appear everywhere, porters of messages, of hope, of healing, of secrets. On a personal level birds amaze me, and I have spent a lot of time over the past 8 months observing them from my balcony, so their symbolism in the novel added yet another depth to it for me. Just absolutely beautiful.

I cannot recommend this story enough, it captured my heart.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review. And thank you so much to Zeyn Joukhadar for writing such epic, beautiful, timeless, and timely stories. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Oct 24, 2020 Laura rated it it was amazing

Shelves: trans-nonbinary-authors, authors-of-color, best-of-2020, queer-reads, audiobooks, fiction

I don't have the words for how much I loved this book. It is a breathtaking story about queer survival and celebration and love. This is the kind of book I crave with my whole being and so rarely ever get.

Here are some of the things that made me weep when this novel was over: It's a book that allows its queer characters to soar, to love, to exist, to survive, to thrive. It is not without queer suffering by any means. And a lot of it was physically painful for me to read, especially the intimate I don't have the words for how much I loved this book. It is a breathtaking story about queer survival and celebration and love. This is the kind of book I crave with my whole being and so rarely ever get.

Here are some of the things that made me weep when this novel was over: It's a book that allows its queer characters to soar, to love, to exist, to survive, to thrive. It is not without queer suffering by any means. And a lot of it was physically painful for me to read, especially the intimate first person narration where you're deep in heart and mind of a trans man who is in the process of coming out. But...it is so hard for me to articulate this, maybe because it is so close to my heart, but I'm going to try. Queer characters in fiction are so rarely allowed to just be. To just be, whether they're living in present day New York, or 1930s New York, or 1920s Syria, or any other place or time on the planet. This is especially true in historical fiction. It's so rare to find a book where queer characters living in homophobic and transphobic times and places aren't punished, in some way, for their queerness. It's as if we're somehow under the impression that the lives of all queer and trans people alive before 1969 revolved exclusively around queerphobia. It's an exhausting, limiting, narrow-minded way to think about the complexity of queer experiences.

What Joukhadar does is broaden the lens. He imagines full, complicated, varied lives for queer people across many decades. He doesn't make their lives small by making their lives only about suffering. He also doesn't erase their suffering. His queer characters are messy, imperfect humans whose lives are sometimes impossible, sometimes joyful, full of heartbreak and loss and despair and love and comfort and the body deep relief that comes from being seen and understood. Reading this book was like having something continually opening inside me. I am going to be thinking about it for years.

I don't think it's giving anything away to say that queer people in this book survive. I suspect some people are going to find the ending too neat or simple. But I think it's worth giving that interpretation of this ending a long, hard look. I think that we are very quick to equate happy/hopeful/uplifting/joyful endings of queer books with simplicity, or unbelievability. I think readers are often inclined not to trust serious queer books with hopeful endings. There's an idea (and I don't have evidence for this, it's just a sense) that a queer book that deals with trauma, suffering, loss, etc. and has a happy ending is somehow a trick. Is somehow lesser, is somehow not real. I haven't read A LITTLE LIFE yet, but I know something about how it ends, and I feel pretty confident that that has something to do with why people love it so much. I'm not saying that a queer book can't have a sad ending and be great. I have read and loved plenty of tragic queer books. But I think it's worth interrogating why we so often expect a book like this, for example, to have an ending that is not unambiguously happy. I felt the same way reading reviews of PATSY that mentioned the neatness of the ending. I think it's an example of the way that queerphobia and transphobia show up in the literary world. And I suspect it is even more pronounced in books by and about queer people of color.

There are a thousand more things I could say about this book. The beauty of the writing, the vividness of the characters, the little bits of almost-but-maybe-not-quite magic scattered throughout. It's the kind of book that my queer heart dreams of, and reading it was an absolute gift. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Nov 24, 2020 Never Without a Book rated it really liked it

I read The Map of Salt and Stars and I thought it was good, but this I really enjoyed.

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Feb 16, 2020 Anneke rated it it was amazing

Shelves: netgalley-read

Book Review: The Thirty Names of Night
Author: Zeyn Joukhadar
Publisher: Atria Books
Publication Date: May 19, 2020
Review Date: February 16, 2020

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

From the blurb:
“The author of the “vivid and urgent…important and timely” (The New York Times Book Review) debut The Map of Salt and Stars returns with this remarkably moving and lyrical novel following three generations of Syrian Americans who are linked by a mysterious sp ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Mar 11, 2020 L ✨ marked it as to-read

Shelves: 2020-releases, lgbtqiap

A Syrian trans boy who's on the quest to learn more about his family's connexion to a rare bird, art, queerness + the title = this book is now one of my most anticipated 2020 release

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

May 17, 2020 Janet Hutcheson rated it it was ok

I am sad that I didn’t like this book. It just was so confusing-too many themes and too many characters. I struggled through it hoping it would get better. Most people gave it excellent reviews so I feel bad being in the minority.

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

May 16, 2020 Devi Laskar rated it it was amazing

it is a terrific read! compelling and beautifully written!

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Aug 05, 2020 Kristen rated it liked it

Shelves: 2020-releases, fiction, lgbtqia, netgalley, poc, realistic-fiction, romance

"The Thirty Names of Night" is a novel that centers around the themes of grief -- of people and places lost, but also of overcoming that grief by finding new people, new places, and new identities.

In an intricate plot, Joukhadar tells the story through two points of view. The first is a nameless (named Nadir much later in the book) young man who was born a woman, but struggles to embrace this identity fully and openly with their family. The second is an artist named Laila Z who is famous for her "The Thirty Names of Night" is a novel that centers around the themes of grief -- of people and places lost, but also of overcoming that grief by finding new people, new places, and new identities.

In an intricate plot, Joukhadar tells the story through two points of view. The first is a nameless (named Nadir much later in the book) young man who was born a woman, but struggles to embrace this identity fully and openly with their family. The second is an artist named Laila Z who is famous for her sketches of a mysterious bird. Laila's point of view is told through a series of letters to a lost lover simply named "B". Their paths cross when Nadir discovers Laila's notebook in an old abandoned tenement building and hopes it will be able to connect him to his dead mother, who sought after the painting of this mysterious bird.

Are you confused? I was for quite some time, too! The hardest part about this book to me was the structure of the plot and the establishment of conflict. It was difficult to determine what the central conflict was, and when I finally settled on it around the halfway mark, I wasn't too convinced by it. I appreciated Laila's journal entries much more because they were easier to follow and her character was better developed. And perhaps because it's summer and my "academic" brain is on hiatus, but I didn't think the bird motif was entirely believable or well executed. I liked that it linked the plot lines together, but there were times when the events revolving around birds read more like magical realism, and times when I just couldn't handle any more. It made it hard to suspend disbelief and read this story as realistic fiction.

The writing style is laudable, and last half of the book was engaging, with a satisfying ending. I especially appreciated what Joukhadar did with the relationships in this novel -- they were realistic and swoon-worthy without being too much. In the end, this could have been a five star book for me if the exposition was written a little more smoothly, but it would still be worth a read in my opinion.
...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Oct 06, 2020 Andrea rated it liked it

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 2.5, but rounding up because of language and originality. Still, not recommending per se.

The setting: "...three generations of Syrian Americans who are linked by a mysterious species of bird and the truths they carry close to their hearts." A closeted Syrian-American trans boy, who renames himself Nadir; the sole caretaker of his grandmother. His best friend/longtime crush. His sister. A baby. More of the Syrian-American commu ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Nov 04, 2020 Shomeret rated it really liked it

When the publisher e-mailed me about The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar, the summary they provided indicated that there are several themes of interest to me. Prominent characters who are artists were an added inducement. So I accepted a free copy from the publisher via Net Galley and agreed to review it.

My research on Zeyn Joukhadar allowed me to establish that the story of the Syrian American trans male protagonist in The Thirty Names of Night is an Own Voices narrative. I was very m ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Oct 07, 2020 Rachel León added it

Shelves: 2020, read-in-2020, net-galley

I hadn't heard of this novel until I received an email asking if I'd be interested in reviewing a digital copy. I've taken a step back from reviewing this year, but when I read the description I immediately said yes. Family sagas are my thing, ditto queer writers and stories, ditto anything by a BIPOC writer.

I wouldn't call it a family saga, though. The story does offer intergenerational accounts, but at its core it's strongly rooted in the main character's becoming. (A tale that does connect w ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Nov 11, 2020 Liz Wine rated it it was amazing

Shelves: lgbtqipa, 2020-favorites

Note: I received a netgalley ARC, all opinions are my own.

I never thought I would find a book that combines my favorite things: LGBTQ+ characters, well written historical fiction, diverse characters with stories that span the globe. I will be honest, at first I struggled to get into the book but then I became hooked and couldn’t stop reading.

flag 1 like · Like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend It | Stats | Recent Status Updates

Readers also enjoyed

See similar books…

Genres

Fiction

103 users

LGBT

69 users

Contemporary

53 users

Historical > Historical Fiction

32 users

GLBT > Queer

29 users

Adult

25 users

Literary Fiction

19 users

Historical

13 users

Adult Fiction

10 users

LGBT > Transgender

8 users

See top shelves…

About Zeyn Joukhadar

Zeyn Joukhadar

611 followers

Zeyn Joukhadar is the author of the novels The Map of Salt and Stars (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, 2018) and The Thirty Names of Night (Atria/Simon & Schuster, 24 Nov 2020) and a member of the Radius of Arab American Writers (RAWI). His work has appeared or is forthcoming in KINK: Stories (ed. RO Kwon & Garth Greenwell), Salon, The Paris Review, Shondaland, [PANK], Mizna, and elsewhere, and has be ...more

Books by Zeyn Joukhadar

More…

Articles featuring this book

6 Great Books Hitting Shelves This Week

Need another excuse to treat yourself to a new book this week? We've got you covered with the buzziest new releases of the day. To create our...

Trivia About The Thirty Names ...

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

Quotes from The Thirty Names ...

“To the night, I am a body without a past or a future, a pillar that bends light. The night doesn't know my name.” — 1 likes

“Some said their wingtips were glossy blue-black, shimmering like the bellies of spiders; others said the white bodies and black markings were a myth, and that the only thing to interrupt their black plumage, dark as the moment after lightning, were their gilded breast feathers that gleamed like coins at last light. For all said that the birds took wing only at sunset. The setting sun was said to call them into the dark. They said the birds never stopped moving. It was agreed that the band of thirty flew west following the night, farther and farther with each day until they circled the planet without ever craning their necks to the east. Few had ever seen them, these birds that were the last of their kind, these birds that encircled the world like an unbroken ribbon.” — 0 likes

More quotes…

See a Problem?

Preview — The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar

The Thirty Names of Night

Get A Copy

Friend Reviews

Reader Q&A

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topic
Discuss This Book

Readers also enjoyed

Genres

About Zeyn Joukhadar

Books by Zeyn Joukhadar

Articles featuring this book

Trivia About The Thirty Names ...

Quotes from The Thirty Names ...

See a Problem?

Preview — The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar

The Thirty Names of Night

Get A Copy

Friend Reviews

Reader Q&A

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topicDiscuss This Book

Readers also enjoyed

Genres

About Zeyn Joukhadar

Books by Zeyn Joukhadar

Articles featuring this book

Trivia About The Thirty Names ...

Quotes from The Thirty Names ...

new topic
Discuss This Book