You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat
You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat

You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat

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On a hot day in Bethlehem, a 12–year–old Palestinian–American girl is yelled at by a group of men outside the Church of the Nativity. She has exposed her legs in a biblical city, an act they deem forbidden, and their judgement will echo on through her adolescence. When our narrator finally admits to her mother that she is queer, her mother’s response only intensifies a sense of shame: “You exist too much,” she tells her daughter.

Told in vignettes that flash between the U.S. and the Middle East—from New York to Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestine—Zaina Arafat’s debut novel traces her protagonist’s progress from blushing teen to sought–after DJ and aspiring writer. In Brooklyn, she moves into an apartment with her first serious girlfriend and tries to content herself with their comfortable relationship. But soon her longings, so closely hidden during her teenage years, explode out into reckless romantic encounters and obsessions with other people. Her desire to thwart her own destructive impulses will eventually lead her to The Ledge, an unconventional treatment center that identifies her affliction as “love addiction.” In this strange, enclosed society she will start to consider the unnerving similarities between her own internal traumas and divisions and those of the places that have formed her.

Opening up the fantasies and desires of one young woman caught between cultural, religious, and sexual identities, 
You Exist Too Much is a captivating story charting two of our most intense longings—for love, and a place to call home.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Catapult (June 8 2021)

Language ‏ : ‎ English

Paperback ‏ : ‎ 272 pages

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1646220595

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1646220595

Item weight ‏ : ‎ 1.05 kg

Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.94 x 1.8 x 20.88 cm

About the Author: Zaina Arafat is a Palestinian-American author. Her debut novel, You Exist Too Much, won a 2021 Lambda Literary Award and was named Roxane Gay's favorite book of 2020. Her work has appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, VICE, BuzzFeed, Granta, Guernica, The Believer, Harper’s Bazaar and Virginia Quarterly Review. She holds an MA in international affairs from Columbia University and an MFA from the University of Iowa. In recognition of her work, Zaina was awarded the Arab Women/Migrants from the Middle East fellowship at Jack Jones Literary Arts and named a Champion of Pride by The Advocate. She is currently at work on an essay collection. You can follow her on Twitter at @ZainaArafat.

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