An Unnecessary Woman: A Novel

Aaliya is a seventy-two-year-old divorced and childless translator living reclusively in Beirut. She is working on translating a 900-page avant-garde historiography by a late Chilean existentialist, a linguistically complex project that leaves her questioning whether she should undertake it at her age. Though she does not fear death—women in her family tend to live long lives—Aaliya spends her days alone, reflecting on literature, philosophy, her career, and her aging body. On one particular day, memories of her volatile past suddenly intrude on her solitude. As she struggles against these emotional upheavals, Aaliya faces an unthinkable disaster that threatens what little remains of her life. The novel explores aging, politics, literature, loneliness, grief, and resilience through the perspective of a narrator who is complex, difficult to understand, and difficult to know. An Unnecessary Woman was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Book Award. The novel examines literature's power to shape identity.