"Ramiza Shamoun Koya reveals the devastating cost of anti-Muslim sentiment in The Royal Abduls, her debut novel about an Indian-American family. Evolutionary biologist Amina Abdul accepts a post-doc in Washington, DC, choosing her career studying hybrid zones over a faltering West Coast romance. Her brother and sister-in-law welcome her to the city, but their marriage is crumbling, and they soon rely on her to keep their son company. Omar, hungry to understand his cultural roots, fakes an Indian accent, invents a royal past, and peppers his aunt with questions about their cultural heritage. When he brings an ornamental knife to school, his expulsion triggers a downward spiral for his family, even as Amina struggles to find her own place in an America now at war with people who look like her. With The Royal Abduls, Ramiza Koya ignites the canon of post-9/11 literature with a deft portrait of second-generation American identity."
A great concept - looking forward to reading.

Although this was not one of my fav stories because it lacked the depth that I was looking for in such a great synopsis going into this story... I am happy to have read the book and honor the late author in learning of her passing.

I found a clip online and I thought it was perfectly short and sweet to add to this review:
“The Royal Abduls,” published by Portland’s Forest Avenue Press earlier this year, is an elegantly multilayered and deeply moving story of a Muslim American family caught in the fissures of identity, immigration and race that were deepened by 9/11. She told The Oregonian/OregonLive that part of her motivation for writing the book was to “be a part of that conversation of finding an acceptable identity for immigrants, refugees and people of color.”

It did capture these subjects, yet I wanted them to dive deeper especially from an author of color.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for my complimentary eARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. Please excuse my tardiness in posting my review. My TBR list is continuously growing and I keep finding so many amazing books being requested + added to my pile! I have so much gratitude for this copy that has been shared with me.

I liked the premise of this one and some of the characters were likeable but overall, it wasn’t really for me. May the author’s soul rest in peace.

It was not the best of book. I thought it was really long for nothing. I kinda enjoyed the characters, but the writing was not up to my tastes.

This book wasn’t for me, but I appreciated that the author was able to publish the book before her passing. I know there are others who have enjoyed this, so I am hopeful she had been able to read some of these more favourable reviews.

I received a free eARC from the author/publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I don't have a lot to say about this book. While I liked the premise, it fell a bit flat for me overall.
Firstly, I struggled with the dual narrative. While I found Omar's to be engaging and interesting to read, I found it hard to focus on Amina's.
Secondly, I felt like there was a mismatch in expectations. While the description of the book says it's an exploration of Muslim identity post-9/11, I felt like it didn't deliver on that promise. That's not to say it didn't touch on those issues, but it seemed to be more about the breakdown of familial and marital relationships in an Indian-American family. If it had been marketed that way, I think it would have been a more enjoyable read for me personally.
At times, I found the dialogue to be a bit stilted, especially when the characters were talking about issues such as terrorism and Muslim identity, which were what I thought the book would be focusing on, so I was left a bit disappointed by that.
So overall it wasn't an awful read, but it wasn't spectacular.

Amina, an evolutionary biologist, chooses her career over love and moves from sunny California to Washington, to embark on a post-doc and to get closer to her nephew Omar. Upon arrival, she discovers that her brother and his wife’s marriage is falling apart and Omar is suffering - his parents are always distracted and he wants to know more about India. Set around 9/11, cultural tension is high and Omar’s interests in his culture are met with a negative reception and we watch as he struggles to understand his identity.

This was a very interesting one - I initially thought this book would be all about Amina but it was Omar that took my attention. It was interesting to me that despite his name, his parents almost shied away from his interest in his Indian culture. As a first-generation ‘Afro-British’, the struggle with one's cultural identity is not something I am familiar with. Growing up in South London and being surrounded by other West Africans, being African has always been a big part of my life and social interactions. So for me, it was sad to see how Omar’s interest in his culture and essentially a part of his identity came with so much backlash.

However, I think the importance of this book was the impact of anti-Muslim sentiments in American post 9/11 and this is what makes it a good book. Well done to Ramiza Shamound Koya!

This is not my usual romance/women’s fiction book. I really, really liked this book. I listened to the audiobook version, and I would HIGHLY recommend it. The book is set in Washington, DC post 9/11, is narrated by Amina and her nephew Omar, and centers on their Indian-American family. It is historical-ish fiction (set in my lifetime so it doesn't feel historical to me), and I kept comparing the events in the book to 2021.

Thanks to @NetGalley and Forest Avenue Press for my ARC!

this sadly wasn't for me. I couldn't connect with the characters whatsoever and had difficulties with the overall storyline. I loved Omar but that's about it.

Incredibly thought-provoking and moving. I don’t typically like books with unlikeable narrators but Amina was smart, bold, and searching for herself without being unrelatable. The authors use of multiple POVs and current events allowed for a sweeping look at the experiences of many Indian-American families in light of 9/11 and the War on Terrorism.

I appreciated that there was family drama, a bit of romance, and work tension throughout while staying true to the purpose of the overall story. I enjoyed the authors writing and character development as well. Highly recommended for readers looking for a quick contemporary read with discussion worthy messages and themes.

The Royal Abduls is a propulsive and absorbing story of the tensions that reside between career and love, personal desires and family expectations. Upping the power of this book, Ramiza Koya deftly reveals how these tensions are made more complicated by political, cultural and social forces. Especially unique in this story is the complex and beautifully drawn relationship between the two point of view characters: a childless aunt and her adolescent nephew. We need more stories like this.

52% read in 2020.

Ok, so this one has me in a little bit of a pickle.
I actually quite enjoy the premise. I think it is a really smart book subject to look at an Indian American Muslim family in the aftermath of 9/11. The September 11 attacks were a massively impactful moment in US history and, especially for the younger and/or non-American readers (I was 8 years old in The Netherlands at the time), it is a part of the US timeline that we do not know a lot about. The storyline on its own was quite interesting and engaging.
However, the writing style and the switching of narratives (the second significantly younger than the first) just did not work for me. The story felt very choppy and rushed. And the younger protagonist felt mismatched with the first and older perspective.

So if I end up finding this in my local library, I will take it home and give it another try, but I definitely do not feel inclined to buy a physical edition just to finish the story.

I feel like if I wanted to give The Royal Abduls a proper review, I’d have to write a whole other book about it – I just can’t see how I would put it all into a single-post review. This story was great, and it’s just so full of everything – it covers a large variety of topics, but the most important thing – it does it all very well. It’s not too much, and every subject goes in pretty deep.

In short, it’s a book about not knowing where you belong – both culturally, as well as individually, but it’s also a book about abandonment, growing up with divorce, without roots. It’s about assumptions, labels people give each other, things we think about others and ourselves and how those things can be unexpectedly different – in both good and bad ways.

It’s also about helplessness, perhaps helplessness we train ourselves into, and all-engrossing loneliness that seems to be becoming more and more ubiquitous. And, to be honest – those are not even all of the topics. For example, a sprinkle of women’s struggle in academia is also definitely there.

Even if I wanted to, I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to name everything that was covered in The Royal Abduls – it felt that extensive. And that’s exactly why I strongly recommend to read it.

It's About...

Amina just broke up with a long-time boyfriend and changed her job – she’s moving closer to her brother’s family, and she is hoping to be more present in their lives. However, things aren’t all great there either. Amina is a second generation Indian in the US, basically, she feels more American than Indian – only English was spoken at their childhood home, and they never practiced the religion of her family – her parents never pursued it. So it’s very strange to her when her father suddenly develops and interest in India out of nostalgia and gets his grandchild Omar, Amina’s nephew, interested in it so much that the kid even develops an Indian accent – despite both him and his parents being born in the US.

Things escalate from there, and Amina needs to cope with both her, her brother’s and her nephew’s problems. The Royal Abduls is about breaking points in life – when a whole waterfall of stuff assaults a person all at once. It’s also about identity – finding one, when you’re not even sure where you actually belong. And frankly, it’s about much more than that – this story is complex and incredibly deep.

Amina Was A Character I Loved And Could Relate To

Amina is a nice, relatable character. She is kind of lost, a little resentful about how academia and life in general works for introverted women. She’s not sure what she’s doing with her life, and she can’t really say no to things she doesn’t want to do – so she always finds herself being pushed by life, rather than getting what she wants out of it. This makes her resentful of people who have managed to get what they want and who are just being themselves for the sake of it.

Strangely enough, I felt a deep affinity with Amina – even though I’m local where I live, I look like everyone else more or less and I come from the same background. But there was so much more to Amina’s character than her heritage that made me relate to her – so many struggles she faced that made her feel exactly how I used to feel when I was younger. It’s all described in a manner that I found very close to my own experiences.

Some readers may not like Amina as much as I did, because she can’t always make up her mind, stalls instead of making decisions she should really be making, stays silent when she should really speak up – she is not one of the go-getters, and she doesn’t really know where or even who she wants to be. But that’s the whole point – struggling all your life to find the real you, and what YOU really want, unable to really fit into any slot – you end up being passive in everything, because what will it really change, anyway? This passivity boils over for Amina and it’s the whole arc of her character development – after all, it’s only so long you can keep sliding and trying to avoid breathing in and making life go on from the frozen point. I really loved how it was done.

Dilemma Of Immigrant Children – Can You Belong To Two Cultures At Once?

One of the main themes of the book seems to be the lostness of immigrant children and grandchildren – especially if their parents didn’t really instill a lot of their culture in their day to day lives. Who really are they? What is their identity? They’re obviously not white, but are they really, truly of the other identity? Do they belong with the people of whichever country their parents once left? It seems they don’t feel they belong with one or the other anymore.

This theme is mostly expressed through Amina’s nephew, Omar. He struggles to fit in, and instead of trying to do it, he chooses to rather fit “out”. Despite being second generation and mixed race, raised as any American kid, Omar longs to find an identity, so at first he starts to manufacture one for himself. He scrambles to find his connections to the country of his heritage, sometimes desperately. The child really wants to belong, and India now seems to him like the only place he could actually belong to.

And at first, Amina thinks it’s harmful – after all, even she grew up without any of her culture around her even in her family of immigrants. So what’s the point of making it all up? But as time passes, she starts helping Omar discover himself, and his culture. And perhaps discovers a little bit of herself as well.

The Royal Abduls Tells The Story In Alternating Points Of View

The story is always being told through the third person, but the points of view change, and I liked that. By seeing things through the eyes of both Amina and Omar, we hear their different perspectives, and see how you can’t ever truly know what the other people are thinking because we humans mostly operate on assumption. We think we know, but we may be utterly wrong. In fact, to me it seemed that this was another smaller theme of the book, cause so many characters assume things, and then are either shown they assumed completely wrong, or it’s just us as the reader who learns this.

Omar’s point of view is also good because we get to learn about living in a country where people keep “othering” you – from a child’s perspective. Omar doesn’t really understand whether he belongs or not, or where he belongs. He asks whether he’s an immigrant – despite him and his parents both being born in the US. He doesn’t understand why people keep asking where he’s from. All these things are unnatural and confusing for a child, and they should be – Omar’s perspective highlights this, because through the eyes of an adult, it all seems as just the way it is, sadly – but through the eyes of a child it takes on a new, stark quality of ‘this doesn’t and shouldn’t really make sense’.

Overall...

The Royal Abduls was an incredible story, it was powerful, and more importantly – it was an ownvoices story of a non-practicing Muslim after the tragedy of 9/11. I’ve never really read anything quite like that – anything with so many themes, and so much said in just one book. I can truly recommend The Royal Abduls to just about anyone – it’s a story that will stay with you for a long time.

I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.

I was gifted a copy by @netgalley of “The Royal Abduls” by Ramiza Koya at the end of July, and yesterday I felt called to begin the read. This is a book that hooked me from the first page, and once I started it was hard to stop. The book is an examination of career, love, family, parenting, Islamophobia and identity and how these things show up intimately in our relationships and imprint on our lives. The characters in this book do not hold religious identities themselves, but their names suggest otherwise, and so the author shows powerfully how xenophobia and Islamophobia impacts a person independent from their religious identity.

The most powerful of this story was the characters - and I completely fell in love with its protagonists, Amina a new postdoc in Washington DC, and her 11 year old nephew Omar. Above all else, this book feels like a love story about that love between an aunt and her nephew and I highly highly recommend!

I’ve recently finished reading The Royal Abduls by Ramiza Shamoun Koya. This wonderful book has stayed with me for the last few weeks, quietly nudging into my thoughts. Telling the story of Amina Abdul, a scientist who recently moved to Washington, DC, the book centers on her relationships with family members & on how she navigates her career. I greatly appreciated reading the story of a character from a different background (a woman from a small, Muslim family who immigrated from India) with an unusual career. The book allows its characters to be their imperfect, messy, & authentic selves. It doesn’t have a neat, storybook ending & that’s probably what I enjoyed most of all. The Royal Abduls tells a story that pushes the reader to walk with the characters on their path & shares a unique world beyond the typical storylines. I thoroughly enjoyed it & am grateful that I got to read it.
Thank you to NetGalley for the complimentary copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

I started to enjoy reading this book after I was about halfway through. I thought the issues it explored were incredibly important, and you could tell the author took a lot of time to craft a story which delivered the messages she thought were important.

Truthfully, I found the main character Amina a bit difficult to relate to. I also found she was not quite that complex of a character, which made her arc less interesting to read about. However, I was very interested in Omar and his story, and that kept me reading. I think the things that Omar was going through are true for many children who are born in the US and have parents who are immigrants. Many second-generation kids eventually ask the question of "Who am I and where do I come from?" and I think his curiosity and craving for knowledge in that regard were very understandable, and it was sad to see how his parents shut him down so much.

I did quite like the writing style, however I felt that the beginning of the story took a very long time to get the interest started. Once I was invested in Omar it made me want to keep reading, but there were quite a few moments at the beginning where I wanted to put it down. I'm also not sure that I liked the dual-perspective, especially since the second one (Omar's) came quite well into the story once I had already gotten used to Amina's voice.

Overall, this is a book I would recommend, especially to anyone wanting to educate themselves on the topics explored in the story.

I really enjoyed this book! The pre-911 outlook was very intriguing. I liked the characters as well as the story, I thought it was quite strong. Also, the cover is so cute! Thanks so much to Netgalley and to the publisher for sending me a digital copy of this title.

I wanted to love this one. I really did... and feel badly that I could connect with any of the characters at all. The book synopsis says it the novel deals with post 9-11 race issues etc but truthfully it never even digs deep into that. If it had, I would have been more immersed into what this family was feeling in the aftermath. But the story dealt more with a second generation Indian-American who married a white woman and had a son. Their heritage is largely in the background and not discussed which actually made me sad for the little boy Omar. With two parents who don’t teach him about his ancestry or even where his grandparents were originally from, he tries to search for some sort of connection to his other culture. I wanted his parents to smarten up and embrace both beautiful cultures and I wanted Omar to grow up loving who he is as a Desi.

That said, I want to highlight this book regardless as it was written by Ramiza Shamoun Koya who tragically died this past June of breast cancer. It was her first novel and she died as it was released. Thankfully a friend drove her around to see her novel in bookstores in Portland. I can’t imagine her happiness of seeing her book in print, knowing that her words would live on forever even if she wouldn’t. And so while I think this book didn’t dig deep enough, I have true empathy for her daughter and marvel at the gift of having her mother’s words now that she’s gone.

Thank you @netgalley and @forestavenuepress for the chance to read and give an honest review

The Royal Abduls is a novel about connections. The Royal Abduls is set in the years right after 9/11 when it was particularly tough to be be brown and Muslim in America. This novel is about the Abduls, an Indian American family. Amina Abdul is a scientist who has just moved to Washington DC from California to be closer to her brother Mo and his family. Amina has had a difficult time making friends for her whole life and is a bit put off when her brother & sister in law ask her to spend time with their son Omar. Omar is very interested in learning more about his Indian ancestory and is hopeful that his family will have a regal or even royal background. He is flustered because no one in his family seems to want to tell him about their Indian culture. Omar feels as if he doesn't fit in at school and is asked if he is a terrorist by his peers. He yearns to learn more about his "otherness".

The overall tone of this book is sadness and loneliness with sparks of joy mixed throughout. The 3 main Abduls featured in this story (Amina, Mo and Omar) all had the common thread of feeling disconnected from the world and themselves. They were all raised to be more American and to not think too much about their Indian heritage. This left them feeling like they had to hide or deny part of who they were.

I found the novel to be compelling and was able to connect with the characters even when I was frustrated by their self-sabotage. I can connect with their feelings of trying to minimize themselves after 9/11 since my husband is also Muslim. It was definitely a tricky time to navigate. I am saddened that the author passed away earlier this year so we won't be able to hear other stories from her #ownvoices perspective.

'The Royal Abduls' tells a crucial story about immigration, belonging, love, family, religion, and even the corrupt academic system. Through Amina, a post-doc fellow in biology, and her young nephew Omar, Koya explores what it means to be Muslim Indian in the post-9/11 era in the U.S.. However, the dialogues between characters about terrorism, the war on terror, and Muslim identity felt a bit forced at times --to me-- and seemed to disrupt the flow. I just couldn't like the characters, even Amina, and I'm still thinking about why. On another note, I do think that this is an important diaspora novel that should be read and studied; I particularly love the scientific metaphors in it.