Once a Stranger

Sonia Nair: Following on from her debut memoir No Country Woman, Zoya Patels novel Once a Stranger tackles the same themes of cultural bereavement, being caught between two different worlds and the experience of being a settler-minority in Australia. The book catapults between before and now, primarily oscillating between the three Ishmael womenAyat, her mother Khadija and her sister Lailaas they grapple with the repercussions of familial estrangement and unmet cultural obligations. Having not spoken to Khadija and Laila for six years after being effectively excommunicated from the family for refusing to marry a Muslim boy, Ayat receives a fateful email with news of Khadijas motor neurone disease diagnosis. With its Indian-Muslim protagonist who moved to Australia at a young age and grew up in a regional town, Patels novel treads similar territory to her memoir. As such, Once a Stranger is realistic and rich with detail: the creeping odour of either mould or something more malignant at Ayats Islamic Sunday school; the feeling of fabric pooling around her again as Ayat wears her salwar pants. Where Patel especially excels is in her seamless inhabiting of two opposing world views; neither side is painted as a villain, no reductive moral judgements are made. Once a Stranger will appeal to readers of Amal Awad, Sarah Malik and Sara El Sayed. Sonia Nair is a Melbourne-based writer and critic. Books+Publishing is Australias number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

Zoya Patel is the author of No Country Woman, a memoir of race, religion and feminism. She is co-host of the Guardian’s Book It In podcast, and the Margin Notes podcast alongside Yen Eriksen. Zoya is a columnist for the RiotACT, and regular books critic and writer for The Guardian, Canberra Times, SBS Voices, Refinery29 and more. Zoya has won numerous awards for her writing and editing, and she was a 2020 judge for the Stella Prize and Chair of the 2021 Stella Prize Judging Panel.