Fatima Farheen Mirza Books & Quotes

“He must have said something because Baba pokes his shoulder and says, "Don't you know -- that's the thing -- everyone is not just good. Everyone is *trying* to be good. And everyone feels this way sometimes, that they are not good, and not good at trying either.”

Trying Goodness Good

Book:A Place for Us

Source: A Place for Us

“Her heart had swelled. How her son was good in a way that she wasn't, in a way that could instruct her. Layla had begun to think lately that there was no real way to quantify the goodness of a person -- that religion gave templates and guidelines but there were ways it missed the mark entirely. And everything a momin should be in his heart, Amar was,”

Goodness

Book:A Place for Us

Source: A Place for Us

“She has become the one to whom he confesses the fights with his father, the fights that make him want to leave, to forget that he ever came from this family, and she quiets his anger with a brief touch of her hand on his arm. She tries to tell him that what he feels is not all anger, that one day that anger will burn out and he will be left with what he can't see right now: a sadness, an ache.”

Sadness Anger

Book:A Place for Us

Source: A Place for Us

“If ever they could resume, even just for an afternoon. If ever she called. A sin was not a sin, if it were for her. A risk was not a risk.”

Sin Risk Long Lost Love

Book:A Place for Us

Source: A Place for Us

“Where did they come from, her children? And how did they arrive already themselves, and unlike anyone else?”

Children Personality Parenting

Book:A Place for Us

Source: A Place for Us

“For a moment, Layla glanced at Amar's journals, but she could barely make sense of his handwriting. Each deciphered sentence threatened to unravel her understanding of him and carried with it the threat of more secrets. It did not matter that she was his mother. What she could ever hope to know of him was just a glimpse -- like the beam of a lighthouse skipping out, only one stretch of waves visible at a time, the rest left in the unknowable dark.”

Children Parenting Parenthood

Book:A Place for Us

Source: A Place for Us

“I panicked, not knowing what my children were capable of, having been made aware suddenly that the limit of their behavior was nothing my greatest fears could even conjure...Maybe anything we could have wanted to instill in them was, at best, a hope.”

Children Hope

Book:A Place for Us

Source: A Place for Us

“Once I had loved you in such a way that even if it were all true it still wouldn’t change anything. If they were right—that you were headed nowhere good—that’s where I wanted to be too.”

Love Regret

Author:Fatima Farheen Mirza

“I let my anger get too carried away, I told myself, I should have stopped before I did what I did. Anger was my worst attribute. It was as if I left myself when it shot up in me, and by the time I was rid of it I had already done the damage. And even thought I could justify why I had reacted the way I had, I always regretted my particular action.”

Regret Anger

Book:A Place for Us

Source: A Place for Us

“I did exactly what Hadia's being celebrated for. No! I did what I thought was so important to you. I chose someone for the community. And I loved her, Mama. I loved her.”

Betrayal Parents And Children Secret Love

Book:A Place for Us

Source: A Place for Us

“Maybe what a son evoked in a father was different than what a daughter evoked? It would be all right. She was only afraid that when time passed, it would not be these trips to the library he would remember, or his eagerness to learn how she made roti in the kitchen with him as her helper, but how upset he would become when Rafiq scolded him.”

Memories Childhood Parenting Parenthood Fatherhood Parents And Children Fathers And Sons

Book:A Place for Us

Source: A Place for Us

“A hundred times. If not more. She was stunned and stunned again by them, and her love for them. How much had been lost? Never made it into her memory, never been captured in a photograph?”

Love Memories Childhood Parenthood

Book:A Place for Us

Source: A Place for Us

“Listen to me." Baba held on to his arm. "You could never be more wrong, Amar. We taught you one way, but there could be others. We don't even know, even we can only hope. How many names are there for God?" "Ninety-nine." He knew all of this by heart. Didn't that count for something? "And are they all the same kind of name?" "No." "Some contradict each other, remember? Didn't you just say to me--what if this is meant to show us more? What if we are meant to look closer?" Amar nodded. Wind rustled the leaves. He sniffled and wipes his nose on his shirtsleeve. "We will wait until you are allowed in," Baba said, as if to himself. " *I* will wait.”

Love God Heaven Judgment Redemption

Book:A Place for Us

Source: A Place for Us

Fatima Farheen Mirza Books

A Place for Us

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