An Emotion of Great Delight

From bestselling and National Book Award–nominated author Tahereh Mafi comes a stunning novel about love and loneliness, navigating the hyphen of dual identity, and reclaiming your right to joy—even when you’re trapped in the amber of sorrow.

It’s 2003, several months since the US officially declared war on Iraq, and the American political world has evolved. Tensions are high, hate crimes are on the rise, FBI agents are infiltrating local mosques, and the Muslim community is harassed and targeted more than ever. Shadi, who wears hijab, keeps her head down.

She's too busy drowning in her own troubles to find the time to deal with bigots.

Shadi is named for joy, but she’s haunted by sorrow. Her brother is dead, her father is dying, her mother is falling apart, and her best friend has mysteriously dropped out of her life. And then, of course, there’s the small matter of her heart—

It’s broken.

Shadi tries to navigate her crumbling world by soldiering through, saying nothing. She devours her own pain, each day retreating farther and farther inside herself until finally, one day, everything changes.

She explodes.

An Emotion of Great Delight is a searing look into the world of a single Muslim family in the wake of 9/11. It’s about a child of immigrants forging a blurry identity, falling in love, and finding hope—in the midst of a modern war.

This is the story of one girl caught between two worlds, a family in crisis, and a love she was never supposed to feel.

• Second Chance Romance: He's her ex-best friend's older brother, the one person she's never been able to forget. When he reappears in her life, Shadi must decide if his love is worth the risk of losing everything else.
• A Raw Coming of Age Story: Navigating a crumbling world is hard enough without the weight of a dual identity. Shadi must forge her own path as a child of immigrants in a country that suddenly sees her as the enemy.
• Unflinching Mental Health Representation: Shadi's family is being torn apart by grief and sorrow. With her father dying and her mother self-harming, she tries to swallow her own pain to become one less person to worry about.
• The Pain of a Friendship Breakup: Her best friend has mysteriously cut her off, leaving Shadi to face the rising tide of bigotry and her own personal tragedies completely alone.