Translations

Translations is a bracing, timely, deeply felt novel. Abdu's characters came to haunt my day-to-day thoughts. Her supple, musical sentences feel thrillingly new. This is an assured debut from a writer with masterful control over language.

Jennifer Down

Translations is one of the most deeply considered debuts I have ever read. Here is a writer who is unafraid to delve into the complexities of selfhood and human connection, who looks at the hypocrisy, beauty and crises of our country and times with a calm and curious eye. Jumaana Abdu is extraordinary and I will read everything she writes.

Hannah Kent

The debut novelist Jumaana Abdu is able to capture the specificity of her characters in just a few tender words. We meet no-nonsense Aliyah who escapes a traumatic past to reinvent both her life and a rundown property in rural New South Wales. With her is her young daughter Sakina and a reticent, mysterious hired hand, Shep: a Palestinian man who “asked of others what he wished to be asked of himself: nothing.” As this trio transforms the wilderness around them, Aliyah takes in an old school friend, Hana – and a long-dormant and charged devotion brings the tenuous balance to boiling point.

Steph Harmon, Guardian

I often go searching for the words of Jumaana Abdu. Everything she writes has grace, energy and life. A star and a writer to watch.

Yumna Kassab

Translations is a serious, transcendent novel. Reading it makes you believe in the soul.

Eda Gunaydin

A powerful, character-driven debut. Abdu's writing is tender and deliberate, conveying the most through what is left unsaid and the emotions experienced in each moment.

Marina Sano, Books+Publishing

I can't remember the last time I read something with such a sharp and confident voice, locally or internationally. The world is meticulous and familiar. The characters are so real I can't believe we haven't met.

Hasib Hourani, Books+Publishing

Transcendent of the context it is written in, Translations is a truly powerful story of love, tragedy and devotion that combine in creating a touching, expressive story.

Angus, Spring Reading Guide

The seemingly effortless flow of Jumaana Abdu’s Translations is wonderfully deceptive; beneath their beautiful arrangements, her words are muscular and precise. From the beginning, Abdu sweeps the reader into the story, seats them inside the car with Aliyah and her nine-year-old daughter, Sakina, as they drive away from past tragedies in Sydney towards their new home on a run-down property in rural New South Wales. Translations is an absorbing and deeply moving debut novel from a writer whose name will surely become a regular feature on literary prize lists.

Elke Power, Readings magazine