The Lovers

by Yumna Kassab

SHORTLISTED FOR THE MILES FRANKLIN LITERARY AWARD SHORTLISTED FOR THE PRIME MINISTER'S LITERARY AWARD FOR FICTION SHORTLISTED FOR THE VICTORIAN PREMIER’S AWARD FOR FICTION ‘her writing is poetic and reverential. The author’s understanding of love, romance and of responsibility runs deep.’ – Books + Publishing

What happens when we become used to each other, when we become bored, when we anticipate each other’s moods like the seasons cycled in a day? What happens when you are tired of me and I tire of you? Every couple has a story. How they met, how they fell in love – their ups, their downs. What made them want to be in each other's arms day and night. The struggle of family expectations. The need to please each other, the desire to go their separate ways. It is about the private universe between two people as they try to hold to each other despite the barriers of geography, culture and class. Every couple has a beginning, a middle, and maybe an end. The Lovers is an enchanting fable that explores the light and dark of a relationship – a love distilled down to its barest form. You might think you know this story. Maybe you do. PRAISE FOR THE LOVERS ‘Sometimes, Kassab shows us, love can be another word for cruelty. Sometimes the stories we hide behind reveal our deepest truths.’ - Sydney Morning Herald ‘Beautifully told in Yumna Kassab's poetic prose, The Lovers is both the story of the tumultuous relationship between Amir and Jamila and an exploration of class, culture and the complex nature of love.’ - Sunday Life ‘The delicate power that fables hold – their universality, while retaining their specificity – is captured in The Lovers. Ultimately, Kassab’s novel rests on the premise of the ‘impossibility of language, of being able to ever understand someone else.’’ - Artshub ‘a raw, haunting and honest look at love, relationships, and the moments that break us.’ - MamamiaPRAISE FOR YUMNA KASSAB ‘the real deal’ – Favel Parrett, author of Past The Shallows ‘rare it is to read a voice as crisp and authentic as Kassab’​ – Zoya Patel, author of No Country Woman ‘Kassab creates an eerie sense of place as the reader is drawn into myriad perspectives and geographies. Without doubt Australiana is an unnerving contribution to contemporary novel writing in this continent.’ – Books + Publishing on Australiana​ ‘The unadorned style and unobtrusive realism of this book mask, at first, how experimental and original it is in other ways’ – Sydney Morning Herald on The House Of Youssef ‘Kassab’s prose is unsparing and frank yet unstinting’ – Australian Book Review on The House Of Youssef​

Genres: Fiction, Romance, Literary Fiction, Audiobook, Contemporary, Book Club, Australia

212 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2022

About the author

Yumna Kassab was born and raised in Western Sydney. She completed most of her schooling in Parramatta, except for two formative years when she lived in Lebanon with her family. She went on to study medical science at Macquarie University and neuroscience at Sydney University. She currently teaches in regional New South Wales.

Reviews

[Rach A. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Literary fiction does amuse me sometimes. It thinks it’s saying *so much* and yet is saying absolutely nothing. The occasional very poetic and beautiful line, but otherwise I find this fairly unremarkable.

Content warnings: domestic abuse, suicidal ideation

[Lizzie Hammang · Rating 4 out of 5]

*4.5 stars

Wow, what a book.

It is written like a modern-day fable, tackling the most intimate, heartbreaking and universal feeling: love. I felt like I was on a cloud, in a dream-like state experiencing what is truly the most poetic, beautiful writing. Kassab’s understanding of love and heartbreak runs so deeply and it honestly made me tear up thinking about my own experiences of love, both the good and the bad, and how they have shaped me as a person.

The chapters were oh so short, something I absolutely love as it keeps me super intrigued and turning the pages ever so quickly, although in some parts throughout this book it really left me wanting more. I haven’t read a book with the style and poise that ‘The Lovers’ has and it is few and far between to hear a voice as authentic as Kassab’s. I absolutely adore this book.

Also, can we take a moment for how stunning this cover is? I am truly obsessed.

[Reading_ Tamishly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too flowery for me. If you love lyrical, poetry like prose this one is for you.

[Bri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don’t judge a book by its GORGEOUS cover :((

[Yusra ❥ · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF 30%
No wonder I hadn't heard about this book

[Amreet Kaur · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t have very high expectations for this yet it didn’t even meet those. This was just a very boring book. Maybe I’m just too impatient but this was just so so slow I nearly DNF. It lacked substance and just seemed so excessively drawn out. Probably a total of two whole events happen in the entire book, and the rest of it is just thoughts. And not even good ones at that. It is really really hard to sit there and read the repetitive thoughts of characters who are shallow at best.

[Indy Scarletti (paperindy) · Rating 1 out of 5]

I liked two things about this book: the cover art and that it was short. Everything else was a poorly developed and hollow portrayal of a relationship that was honestly just confusing and not very well written. I had no attachment to any of the characters, there was very little plot and it was primarily just vague, cliche and boring short pieces of text only loosely tied to one another and not making much sense as a whole.

[Suzie B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Almost reading like a modern day fable, this book is about the love between Amir and Jamila, from how they met to how they grew apart yet yearned to remain together. This book makes you question the stages of love and what is worth fighting for. With short chapters, this book is a intriguing quick read which conveys so much emotion in so little words.

[grace saint · Rating 2 out of 5]

not the book for me tbh. HOWEVER, there was a line saying something to the effect of, ‘You get a university education to live a farmers life in the end’ and there’s weight to that

[Kat Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finished this in about 2 hours. Best part of the book was the cover. A pleasant but easily forgettable read.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

an easy read but the characters had no depth and as a result i did not care what happened to them

[Marion Brownlee · Rating 1 out of 5]

3 hours I'll never get back

[Em Campbell-Ross · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you asked me what happened in this book, I genuinely couldn’t tell you, it made 0 fucking sense

[Frida Dichtl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good but very poetic. If you like poetry I think you would like this

[Pema · Rating 1 out of 5]

if i could give it 0 stars, i would. this book was full of meaningless platitudes, none of the characters were interesting or fleshed out at all, and it was a complete waste of my time to read it !!!

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

2023 Miles Franklin Longlist

A bit of tough love here as a character says 3 mins from the end of the audiobook (speed-up)
Coherently written, so two stars for that. Unfortunately it's 3 hours of my time that I won't get back.
I can't bear Lover's angst, so this is really not my sort of writing.
I also struggle to see how this is in anyway original and deserving of being longlisted for the MF prize. It's quite a stretch that it's on the list at all. I hope someone enjoys it more than me and can enlighten me to the value of it.

[Lesley Halliday · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly beautiful writing, can't describe how gorgeous the writing is, heartfelt and moving, HOWEVER, for some reason, I found this novel quite inaccessible. I'm not sure why, but having finished it, I'm struggling to link characters and situations . Quite a sad read, but utterly beautiful

[Trish Booth · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️

Some beautiful moments in this lyrical pose, but sometimes the prose was too exaggerated that it lost me in this folkloric love tale between Amir and Jamila.

[Anna Giribet · Rating 2 out of 5]

Palabras muy bonitas pero carentes de sentido, dice mucho y no quiere decir nada, 12 pavos por un libro q solo me servirá de decoración ole ole 🪭🪭🪭

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

"That is how it always starts, she mutters and thinks of how hopeful she has been, rolling up her sleeves to greet each beginning with hope and how each time it had been cut down, of how many loves have died despite all her energy, her will and intent. And what is there except a hope that this one will not go the way of the others and die a premature death?"

I liked this a great deal - so much so, once I had finished, I started again, unwilling to part so quickly with the text. Which is on point, of course, because Kassab here seeks to capture the impossibility of romantic/sexual love, the push and pull of desire and life, the tension between the mundane and the transcendent. Clearly, based on other reviews, not everyone relates to this that way: so to be clear, this little book does demand you surrender a little. The point is not what is going on exactly, but how it feels.
I was a massive fan of Kassab's debut, the House of Youssef, a book that I still think about frequently, years after I read it. Like the Lovers, House of Kassab is best savoured by paying attention to the details, in which the connections can be glimpsed that make some sense of the whole. And while the Lovers is more tightly focused on two people, it still weaves the story of a community, a village, through which the couple's story can be understood.
But Kassab also revels in ambiguity. It is not always clear whose story is being told, or whether something is imagined or real. You are either going to love that, or hate it. For me, it worked. Kassab is interested in the stories we tell ourselves, how we create narratives. The ambiguity gives space for reflection (and, as mentioned, some is decreased if you pay attention to the small details). The characters revel in their feelings, but we can also see that their relationship is shaped by a ticking clock of impending international separation, by the different worlds of a western-raised woman and a village man, by the various ties they bring. One character holds court in his home, countering his friends problems with weighty parable stories, creating a sense of reality for them. But few narratives hold, even dreams betray. To be alive, it seems to Kassab, is to be ever looking for understanding, not necessarily achieving it.

[Gavan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yeah, nah. Pretentious, light, lacking in development. Aiming for the "fable" vibe (which it achieves), but without the depth & clarity required. Parts were well written, but not enough to make this engaging. If you like that style, read "The Rain Heron" instead.

[Brigid O'Meara · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don’t know who recommended me this, but you’re off the Christmas card list. Couldn’t tell you what this was about.

[Ella Wint-Kearney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was mad confusing… shoutout Samir for the good stories though

[L7xm · Rating 4 out of 5]

"What happens once we become used to each other, once we become bored,
Once we anticipate each other’s moods like the seasons cycled in a day? What happens when you are tired of me and I tire of you? What keeps us together except the routine of a child and the boundaries of marriage and the law? "

رواية الحبيبان طرقت أبواب اجتماعية و نفسية بشكل أدبي شاعري يجعل من فعل القراءة متعة فكرية و وجدانية ، تتحدث عن أمير و جميلة حيث تنشأ بينهما علاقة حب وتنتهي وما بين النهاية و البداية تأخذنا المؤلفة في رحلة سردية حيث تقدم الأحداث في صورة ضمنية ، تنقسم الرواية إلى ثلاث فصول ( البداية ، رسائل ، النهاية ) وفي كل فصل عناوين تلخص شعوراً وتضم مواقف كلها هذا في سبك أدبي رقيق .

"Anything he said would wound her ten times more than the words he’d heard
from her. It was likely she wouldn’t forgive him, that she would walk out. And perhaps the drama, the excitement, would be satisfying for a minute, but the effort to win her back would be too great. "

متعة الرواية لا تكمن في ضمنية الأحداث وترك ترتيبها و فهمها للقارئ فقط بل في محاولة القارئ تشخيص الحالة العاطفية لكل الطرفين و تقييم العلاقة ، لقد كتبت المؤلفة شخصياتها بعناية فأعطتهما أبعاداً نفسية معقدة تجعلهما أقرب مما نتخيل .

"Once Jamila had believed that if she left, she would be free at last. So she left but she carried the stupidity of their world inside her. Once she believed if she had enough money, they would leave her alone but
no matter how high she built the fortress walls, they were family and they wormed their way in with a trick and a plea. "

تتميز الرواية بأنها عن شخصيات ذات أصول شرقية و خلفية اسلامية في أستراليا ، واستغلت المؤلفة ذلك بأن أدخلت قصصاً جانبية لشخصيات ثانوية زادت من جمال الرواية بحيث كانت للمواضيع الإجتماعية ارتباطاً في علاقة أمير و جميلة .

"He and Jamila would spend their days separate and alone, as long as each night ended in her bed. "

الرواية رقيقة بطيئة الحركة هادئة العبارة رغم غموضها فهي لا تطلب الرمزية خارج رموزها وهدفها بسيط أن تكون مرآة للقارئ ينظر فيها فيرى علاقاته ويقيمها اخيراً.

[matthew · Rating 2 out of 5]

the poetic prose was lovely, but it just wasn’t for me, I’m sorry Yumna 😭

[annika.hbd · Rating 3 out of 5]

war nicht schlecht aber auch nicht special …

[jules · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

[em 💗 · Rating 5 out of 5]

i loved it. or verbalised so much, the feeling of being bored in love, the feeling of putting everything in and not getting anything out. the feeling and hope that everything will work out if you put your everything in to it. i just loved it, literally read it in just over an hour

[Kristy B · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.85⭐️

[Pearl · Rating 2 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️.5