Etaf Rum was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, by Palestinian immigrants. She teaches college English literature in North Carolina. Her debut work of fiction, A Woman Is No Man: A Novel (Harper Perennial), focuses on three Palestinian American women from three generations as they deal with their roles and the expectations of their community. In 1990 Palestine, 17-year-old Isra prefers reading books to entertaining the suitors her father has chosen for her. But over the course of a single week she finds herself betrothed and married. Soon, she is living in Brooklyn and struggling under the expectations of her mother-in-law, Fareeda. The pressure grows even more intense as she births four daughters instead of the sons Fareeda tells Isra she must bear. Fast-forward to 2008 and 18-year-old Deya, Isra’s eldest daughter, must meet with potential husbands at her grandmother’s insistence. Deya wants to go to college, but her parents died in a car crash when she was only 8, and her grandmother believes her future depends on marrying the right man. And soon, an unexpected path will force Deya to question everything she thought she knew about her parents, the past, and her future.
