THE ORDINARY CHAOS OF BEING HUMAN

Richards collects short essays from Muslims across the planet in this anthology of creative nonfiction.

What is often described as the Muslim world is, of course, many worlds. The fact that many Americans view such a large section of the globe as a single entity has led to a great deal of misunderstanding. “I was consumed by the fact that so many Westerners are entirely unaware of the breadth of cultural differences coming from Muslim worlds,” writes Richards of her decision to begin this project back in 2015. Since then, she has assembled the voices of 41 writers from various Muslim communities—Sri Lanka, Yemen, Andalucía, Nigeria, Illinois—to speak to these individual human experiences. One contributor recounts how, anonymous in her niqab, she ran into her estranged father in a restaurant in Durban, South Africa, and was unsure whether she should approach him. A journalist writes about her childhood on the Philippine island of Sulu prior to the separatist uprising that turned the place into a war zone. American writer Noreen Moustafa remembers her childhood summers in Alexandria, Egypt, and laments how much the city’s seaside has changed in recent years. “At least they didn’t take the sea away,” Moustafa quips, displaying an anguish that characterizes much of this collection and its recurring aches of immigration, war, loss, and grief. As Duaa Randhawa notes in an essay about her grandfather’s garden in Pakistan, “eventually, with the seasons, and despite the feeling of betrayal, we too fall into the rhythm of orbital resonance. Degrees obtained, cities changed, love fallen into and out of; after all the wear and tear of the heart, it still goes on.” It’s an unusual book in that it’s so thematically flexible—it proves Richards’ point about the diversity of the Muslim experience by interpreting even the adjective “Muslim” quite loosely. The writing is so strong, however, and takes readers into such far-flung corners of the world, that it can’t help but surprise and delight.

A simmering, wide-ranging collection of informative nonfiction.