Immediately arresting prose, precise yet expansive in surprising ways, kind of like if Fleur Jaeggy came to your dinner party and got slightly loaded. I loved every page of this, and if things break right I believe it could be as big a sensation as Otessa Moshfegh.

Whoever described this as a Palestinian Moshfegh had the right of it. Weird and uncomfortable and wobbly is the best way I can describe this. The narrator is unreliable as we all are midexperience -- it's only later with reflection that we're able to take stock and evaluate. I found this book difficult to read, not because it wasn't good, but because every one of the protagonist's experiences would have overwhelmed me as a single circumstance and cumulatively they began to feel actively burdensome, and on top of that, I actively disliked everyone in the book, though I went back and forth on the main character a couple times. I frequently had to step away and read other books before coming back to this.

That said: it may not have been an easy book, but it was a GOOD one. All of the angst of the current adult generations (excluding the Boomers) replete with cultural trauma, emotional mania, and sly anti-consumer fervour. Incredibly well written, in a way designed to make you despise everyone engaging in community in all the wrong ways, highlighting the uncomfortable truths we overlook daily to make peace with our preference for convenience over justice, be it ecological, social, economical, etc.

Weird. BIG WEIRD. This book is insane. I’ve struggled with properly reviewing this one. I keep questioning.. do I like this? Is this good weird or bad weird? In some ways I think that’s what I like about it. Weird girls, you know what I mean.

Some parts of it I loved and couldn’t get enough of. I especially felt like this in the beginning. There’s something about a woman describing her obsessive routines that just entrances me. Think like Mona Awad’s Rouge on that bit.

Our main character in The Coin is fanatical about cleanliness. Her hygiene routine is extreme as well as her cleaning and organizing compulsions. I was compelled to take an hour long “everything” shower after setting this down for the first time.

But then it gets extra strange as she becomes partners with a homeless man in a Birkin bag scheme. And then she pivots in the alternate direction on the clean freak scale to chase what she feels she needs. She’s unhinged from the beginning so her spiraling is somewhat linear to me.

There is a lot to gain as well from the themes of class and status, sexuality, and the idea of molding your own reality.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this. I can’t deny that I couldn’t look away and completely binged it. I am very intrigued by Yasmin Zaher’s mind and what she may put out in the future.

Thank you NetGalley, Catapult, and Yasmin Zaher for this advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review!

A Palestinian woman finds herself obsessed with cleanliness and perfection through Birkins, skin care and "teaching" school boys. This one was not for me, but Zaher is quite talented in making my skin crawl. The detailed descriptions of the main character washing herself were disturbing, yet I had to keep reading.

This book is for fans of the woman undone trope, who love a bit of creepy thrown in. A low burn, that was still suspenseful.

The Coin is already in the running for a favorite book of the year for me. It´s stylish, smart, deadpan funny and most importantly, it turned my brain around, it makes me think, it surprised me. The book is about a teacher who gets wrapped up in a pyramid scheme involving luxury bags, but really it´s a book of strangeness, compulsions, cleanliness and cruelty and what we do to feel at home in our bodies, to build roots anywhere and with anyone. The voice here is so strong, I would follow the narrative and this writer anywhere, to any plot or city, it´s graceful and smart and also miserable and hilarious and bizarre. It reminds me a bit of Ottessa Moshfegh, a bit of Halle Butler, a bit of Mona Awad, but miraculously it´s its own special magic.

Great novel! I think a lot will be made of the main character's ritualistic and obsessive cleaning, but there's a lot more to the protagonist, an attentive and stylish Palestinian heiress teaching at a boy's private school with a worldview that brings to mind Tom Ripley and Miss Jean Brodie. The chapters are only a handful of pages, and the voice is propulsive, stylish, and quietly bizarre—reminded me of Esther Yi's 'Y/N' and Nazli Koca's 'The Applicant.'

My thanks to NetGalley and Catapult for the ARC of Yasmin Zaher’s The Coin.

This narrative is nothing like its synopsis. Really, it is a first person account of a Palestinian heiress living in New York. She is obsessive compulsive about cleanliness and devotes chapters to describing cleaning her body and apartment, often in grotesque detail. By day, she “teaches” at a private boys’ school (a premise I found laughable as an educator familiar with the requirements and hiring practices at such institutions). She doesn’t teach the boys so much as use them as her twisted human laboratory. I found the character deeply unlikable and bizarre. The character does not “unravel” as the synopsis claims. Instead, she’s off kilter from the first line. Perhaps the point about her desire for cleanliness was intended to imply some existential turmoil surrounding either her father’s estate or her status as a stemless citizen of Palestine, but I am genuinely unsure at the end of this book. Weird. Glad I didn’t spend my own money on this one.

I really liked this book. What stole the show for me was the narrator. I loved the way the story was told through her and how the characters were seen and interacted with one another. Amazing gem of a novel that I found here on Netgalley

“The Coin” follows the story of a Palestinian teacher in New York City. Written like a fever dream, this is a character driven novel that tells the story of a displaced woman and her relationships— to herself, her students, her partners, her coworkers, her friends. I never knew what would happen next, what turns the story would take, or where it would end up. The finale was so beautifully written.

This book perfect for people who love reading about weird and obsessive literary women! Fans of authors like Mona Awad and Ottessa Moshfegh will love this literary debut. No plot, just vibes.

My only critique is the style of the chapters, which are very short, which made it difficult for me to develop my world building (if you can call it that?). This might work for others who enjoy that kind of format!

Thank you Catapult books for this ARC!

Yasmin Zaher is a Jerusalem-born Palestinian journalist and The Coin is her first novel: and it absolutely knocked me off my feet. The main character — a young Palestinian woman: rich and beautiful, newly arrived in NYC to work as a private middle school English teacher (even though she hasn’t read any of the English classics), physically and existentially stateless — is not outwardly a victim of history looking for sympathy. And yet she suffers bizarre, body-based obsessions, and as her actions approach a breakdown, it’s obvious that, despite outward appearances, trauma (both personal and historical) underpin and affect her entire existence. I have never experienced anything like this novel — I don’t believe I have read a book written by a Palestinian author before — and this exposure to other lives and voices is exactly the reason why I read. This might be a bit challenging for those who like bodies to remain sanitised and out of sight, but this is a novel I would urge everyone to read; and especially at this time. Full stars, no hesitation.

OMG rarely does something live up to its hype but THE COIN does. What a delicious gem of a novel. I lived for the narrator, her strange antics (her cleaning ritual!!! her unorthodox manner of teaching!!! her little Birkin scheme!!!). Not to mention the very real, though still nuanced, socio-political undertones that vibrate across the novel. What an achievement. I will be re-reading it pronto.

Thanks to the publisher for the e-galley,.