Bea, an American studying Arabic, has traveled to Syria, as the country is slowly drifting toward civil war, to view a certain sacred text in its original language. The text, which tells the story of the lovers Leila and Qais, makes use of the famed 99 words for love in Arabic. Bea is impatient to see the text with her own eyes, but while she waits (practicing her Arabic and requesting the text at the National Library again and again), she bears witness to a different, real-life love story. The relationship between Nisrine, her host family's Indonesian maid, and Adel, a young policeman who catches first Bea's attention and then Nisrine's, will have ramifications for everyone involved, and will alter Bea's perspective on her work, her host country and the nature of love. Emily Robbins weaves a luminous, heartbreaking narrative in her debut novel, A Word for Love.
"I began this story, in the hope that I could do it justice, and clear my conscience," Bea says at the outset. She describes her host family: Madame, who worries about Bea, Nisrine and her three children equally; Madame's husband, Baba, whose political leanings will land him in trouble with the government; Nisrine, thoughtful and longing for her home; and Adel, assigned to the police station next to the family's residence. Madame, Bea, Nisrine and the children spend most of their time indoors, and Robbins draws out the tension between public and private lives, between love lived out in close proximity and love imagined over a distance. Meanwhile, Bea's past, and her urgent need for love and validation, is gradually revealed, as is Nisrine's family history in Indonesia and Adel's conflicted relationship with his powerful father.
Although Bea initially hopes to play the role of Leila to Adel's Qais, she finds herself instead cast as the shepherd who befriends Qais: observer, confidante, compassionate witness. Bea watches the slow growth of the love between Nisrine and Adel: brief conversations, scraps of poetry, the "language that develops in love." Lonely, yet comforted by her friendship with Nisrine and her role in the family, Bea looks for ways to "grow [her] heart; that is, to feel more, and to find more things to love." Her actions and Adel's have consequences she never imagined, and while Bea does find more things (and people) to love, it inevitably causes her pain.
A lyrical, bittersweet story that raises more questions than it answers, Robbins's debut explores the gaps in translation (both linguistic and cultural), the problems of divided loyalties, and many words for love. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams
Shelf Talker: A luminous, bittersweet novel about an American student who becomes entangled in the lives of her Syrian host family.