{"product_id":"the-coin-isbn-9781646222100","title":"The Coin","description":"\u003cb\u003eWinner of the Swansea Dylan Thomas Prize\u003cbr\u003eA \u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e Editors' Choice\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eA bold and unabashed novel about a young Palestinian woman's unraveling as she teaches at a New York City middle school, gets caught up in a scheme reselling Birkin bags, and strives to gain control over her body and mind\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Coin\u003c\/i\u003e’s narrator is a wealthy Palestinian woman with impeccable style and meticulous hygiene. And yet the ideal self, the ideal life, remains just out of reach: her inheritance is inaccessible, her homeland exists only in her memory, and her attempt to thrive in America seems doomed from the start.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn New York, she strives to put down roots. She teaches at a school for underprivileged boys, where her eccentric methods cross boundaries. She befriends a homeless swindler, and the two participate in an intercontinental scheme reselling Birkin bags.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut America is stifling her—her willfulness, her sexuality, her principles. In an attempt to regain control, she becomes preoccupied with purity, cleanliness, and self-image, all while drawing her students into her obsessions. In an unforgettable denouement, her childhood memories converge with her material and existential statelessness, and the narrator unravels spectacularly.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“With biting humor and incisive prose” (\u003ci\u003eTime\u003c\/i\u003e), \u003ci\u003eThe Coin\u003c\/i\u003e explores nature and civilization, beauty and justice, class and belonging—all while resisting easy moralizing. “Page-turning and delightful\" (\u003ci\u003ePeople\u003c\/i\u003e), “sharp and disarming” (\u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e), “stunning and surreal” (\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e), \u003ci\u003eThe Coin\u003c\/i\u003e marks the arrival of a major new literary voice.\u003cb\u003eWinner of the Swansea Dylan Thomas Prize\u003cbr\u003eFinalist for the Gotham Book Prize\u003cbr\u003eLonglisted for the Brooklyn Public Library Book Prize\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e Notable Book \u0026amp; \u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e Editors' Choice\u003cbr\u003eA Bookshop \u0026amp; Goodreads Editors' Pick\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eTime\u003c\/i\u003e, A Must-Read Book of the Year\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNamed a Best Book by Amazon, \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e,\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003ePeople\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTime\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGQ\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eVulture\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eNew York Post\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eElle, The National\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eFlair Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eDazed\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eElectric Literature\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eDebutiful, Publishers Weekly, \u003c\/i\u003e\u0026amp;\u003ci\u003e Library Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNamed a Most Anticipated Book by \u003ci\u003eThe Seattle Times\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eVulture\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eMarie Claire, Ms.\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eBookshop\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eLiterary Hub, The Millions,\u003c\/i\u003e \u0026amp; \u003ci\u003eElectric Literature\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[A] smart, sneering novel of capital and its consequences . . . In a spiraling, hallucinogenic plot, \u003ci\u003eThe Coin\u003c\/i\u003e draws a dotted line between the narrator’s grandmother’s garden in Palestine and a splatter of excrement on New York City subway tiles; between her grandfather’s birthplace of Bisan—'now a low-income town in Israel, housing mostly Jewish families from Morocco and no Palestinians'—Stokely Carmichael and a Gucci window display appropriating the language of revolution . . . The whiplash feels intentional, funny in an absurdist way, like the narrator’s existential seesawing between jaded American consumerism and the sadness and guilt of displacement . . . The novel’s power is not in cohesion, but in chaos.\" —Lauren Christensen, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[A] sharp and disarming debut novel . . . Zaher is expert at crisp turns of phrase that reveal how brittle her narrator is . . . A sturdy novel about an unsteady person is no small feat, and Zaher’s prose is remarkably controlled.\" —Mark Athitakis, \u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Birkin-bag economics meets colorism and racism and feminism and more—it’s beyond intersectionality—in Zaher’s stunning and surreal debut novel of a young Palestinian woman who lives and teaches in New York City.\" —Bethanne Patrick, \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[An] unusual, powerful novel . . . Zaher captures the suffocating pain of isolation and loneliness in a manner that feels chillingly universal.\" —Connie Ogle, \u003ci\u003eThe Star Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"One of 2024’s most fascinating debuts, at once chaotic and razor sharp . . . I can’t wait to read whatever Zaher writes next.\" —\u003ci\u003eThe Independent\u003c\/i\u003e, Best Fiction Books of the Year\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Enthralling . . . This fearless quest for identity results in a bold, brash novel written with notable assurance and flair . . . Zaher’s singular style gives shape and structure to the zany story of an elementary schoolteacher who becomes obsessively preoccupied with cleaning, both herself and her environment, as a way to manage trauma . . . Mad and brilliant.\" —Sarah Gilmartin, \u003ci\u003eThe Irish Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[I]n a society as unjust as this one, even acts of morality are tarnished with grime. As with the coin lodged in the narrator’s back—a smart metaphor for inherited trauma and the currency of power—no matter how hard you scrub, you can never get clean.\" —Bekah Waalkes, \u003ci\u003eThe Atlantic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"With biting humor and incisive prose, Zaher presents a dizzying portrait of a woman on the edge.\" —\u003ci\u003eTime\u003c\/i\u003e, Top Ten Best Fiction Books of the Year\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Surreal, and willing to risk a little provocation, Zaher’s book plays with overlapping ideas of privilege, asking complex questions about what past suffering means in the face of a desire for today’s luxuries.\" —\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Coin \u003c\/i\u003efeels like a distinctly Palestinian novel—concerning itself, as it does, with its narrator’s statelessness and increasing sense of isolation . . . Zaher’s book also does the vital work of reminding the reader that there is no single story to be told about any group of people in any part of the world. Zaher’s protagonist struggles under the weight of immense trauma, yes, but she’s also a fashionista, an obsessor, and an educator doing her (sometimes-flawed) best to impart wisdom. In other words, she’s a human being full of complexities and contradictions, and spending time in her world is both dizzying and delightful.\" —Emma Specter, \u003ci\u003eVogue\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[A] hypnotic debut.\" —Keziah Weir,\u003ci\u003e Vanity Fair\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A page-turning delight.\" —\u003ci\u003ePeople\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"With themes of embodiment, class, gender, loneliness and more, this is a striking debut. Read it, and then go back to read it again.\" —Karla J. Strand, \u003ci\u003eMs.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"With its dry wit and devastating final pages, \u003ci\u003eThe Coin\u003c\/i\u003e is an ugly and beautiful addition to the mini-canon of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown novels from Plath to Moshfegh.\" —A \u003ci\u003eVulture\u003c\/i\u003e Best Book of the Year\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Stories about women spiraling out in New York aren’t exactly hard to come by, but with \u003ci\u003eThe Coin\u003c\/i\u003e, Zaher fashions a narrative in this vein that’s undeniably fresh.\" —Chloe Joe, \u003ci\u003eBustle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Stripped of the traditional conventions of character, Zaher’s narrator is a spirit possessed by surfaces: a free­-floating shade clad in designer goods, porous as the scent of her expensive French perfume . . . In the end, there is no escape, only a return to the self.\" —Terry Nguyễn, \u003ci\u003eThe Believer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Zaher writes with spiritedness and verve, tackling issues like self-care and cleanliness to materialism and desire in a propulsive story about one woman’s sanitized ambition of never marrying with her grimy reality.\" —Nathan Smith, \u003ci\u003eObserver\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Bracing . . . This is a novel about style—in both its main character’s selfhood and Zaher’s sonics . . . Zaher’s prosaism relies on tone and attitude, but she doesn’t surrender everything to it. Her attentive speaker, living temporarily in New York City, cares about details in her environs and clarity when it comes to describing her movements to her listener. Nothing is wasted . . . I read \u003ci\u003eThe Coin\u003c\/i\u003e with avidity and I suggest you do, too.\" —Ron Slate, \u003ci\u003eOn the Seawall\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Glamorous and unhinged . . . Zaher upends the expectations and cultural parameters of American literature . . . \u003ci\u003eThe Coin\u003c\/i\u003e remains singular in its achievement: it transcends the crazy girl\/sad girl trope common in Ottessa Moshfegh–influenced novels with an ending that feels philosophically complex, multilayered, and as humorous as it is heartbreaking . . . A psychoanalytic wonder, a prismatic and pithy gem of a book, which is both light and dark, exilic and utterly at home in the tradition its narrator denounces.\" —Aria Aber, \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Zaher’s novel is unflinching . . . I became so engrossed in the momentum of the narrator’s telling that I could hardly put the book down without feeling that I should give myself over to it . . . If, as the narrator says, 'money simplifies everything,' then language only complicates, and for the better. Zaher’s novel deeply unsettled me, as only language can.\" —Ben Lewellyn-Taylor,\u003ci\u003e Colorado Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A very stylish novel that manages to broach class and statelessness with tact and humor, while also touching on beauty, sex, love and the nature of civilization itself, all from a Palestinian debut novelist.\" —\u003ci\u003eLiterary Hub\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The exquisite novel probes the space between the tragedy of statelessness and the neurotic glow of affluence, proving that in this overlap lies a rich and bewildering landscape of human behavior. Strange and luminous, it weaves an elegant tapestry from disparate threads, touching on class, fashion, lust, grief, and violence with wit and poise. Funny, unnerving, and decadent, \u003ci\u003eThe Coin\u003c\/i\u003e is at once an intimate character study and a startling portrait of contemporary America.\" —Bella Moses, \u003ci\u003eForeword Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Wondrous . . . Capitalism, materialism, love, lust, friendship, purity, the natural world, cleanliness, place, and self-image are all explored in this thunderous, lightning-speed, fast-reading tale. Zaher, a Jerusalem-born Palestinian, writes with passion and holds nothing back in her buzzy, strong debut.\" —\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal \u003c\/i\u003e(starred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"When past and present, self-indulgence and self-loathing collide, the result is a bold and terrifying reinvention . . . Brilliant.\" —\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A hypnotic character study . . . Zaher consistently pinpoints those little textures and smells and impulses that can itch under a person's skin like a splinter and leverages them to build a world of seemingly indefensible cravings, unquenchable urges, and frantic pursuits.\" —\u003ci\u003eShelf Awareness \u003c\/i\u003e(starred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[A] hypnotic debut . . . Zaher’s writing is deeply arresting, especially when her narrator is energized by her newfound sense of self-possession in New York, where she walks the streets wearing a 'violent' and 'sexual' perfume and carries a Birkin bag, which thrillingly transforms her into an object of desire . . . A tour de force.\" —\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The bizarre, humorous, and glamorous voice of the first-person narrator, a wealthy Palestinian woman with a very expensive capsule wardrobe who has moved to downtown Brooklyn to take a teaching job at a school for underprivileged boys, is so strong, and so strange, that you will follow this narrator anywhere she wants to go . . . It’s a wild book, but the writing is so tight and again, voice-y, that I plowed straight through it. Recommend.\" —Cat Marnell\u003cb\u003eYasmin Zaher \u003c\/b\u003eis a Palestinian journalist and writer born in 1991 in Jerusalem. \u003ci\u003eThe Coin\u003c\/i\u003e is her first novel.","brand":"Catapult","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46305003405541,"sku":"NP9781646222100","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781646222100.jpg?v=1767738724","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-coin-isbn-9781646222100","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}