Hope Ablaze

Following in her uncle's footsteps, Nida cherishes the time she spends at The Poet's Block, a poetry group in her Muslim neighbourhood. Writing poetry means the world to her, despite her mother's strong disapproval. But, when her best friend tries to talk her into entering a national poetry contest, Nida balks at the idea. However, her life takes a dramatic turn when she is stopped and aggressively frisked and mistreated by the police at a political rally while the senatorial candidate, himself, looks on with indifference and makes his own derogatory comments about Muslims. Deeply shaken by the experience, Nida writes an angry letter poem about it, a poem that ultimately wins the poetry contest. The contest that she did not enter.

As Nida struggles to figure out who submitted her poem without her consent, she must also deal with the consequences of this win as she finds herself suddenly at the centre of attention. Her mother is furious and destroys Nida’s notebook of poems; Mitchell Wilson, the politician that she criticized, threatens legal action against her and is eager to discredit her, and the media seems intent on twisting her words at every turn. Nida wants nothing more than to hide from the maelstrom of media attention that her poem has generated, but her Muslim community and fellow poets are disappointed in her for not standing up for herself in the face of such blatant Islamophobia. And meanwhile, as Nida tries to navigate this minefield of betrayals and expectations and disappointments, the one thing that is most terrifying to her is that she now finds herself no longer able to write.

Author Sarah Mughal Rana tackles numerous weighty issues in Hope Ablaze, her first novel. In addition to Nida's own struggles against racism and Islamophobia, she is also wrestling with the injustice of her uncle's imprisonment as a suspected terrorist because of his radical poetry and his refusal to quietly accept the propaganda that he found in America. She hates how prison has changed him, and how his imprisonment has led her mother to become so fearful of calling attention to themselves. Rana also vividly depicts Nida's close-knit community of Al-Rasheed and their unfailing support for one another, and she raises noteworthy questions about the nature of politics in general and the American political system in particular.

The story calls much-needed attention to the unjust treatment that Muslims continue to face in North America, and it also reminds readers of the manipulative nature of the media. However, the book falters somewhat in its attempt to balance so many significant issues. The characters never feel fully developed, and Nida's relationships with her mother, her best friend and others in the book are not as convincingly explored as they might have been. The magical realism element provides a way for Nida to learn about her family history, but that knowledge doesn't impact the story as powerfully as it could have, and, in general, the magic realism feels forced and contrived.

Nevertheless, Hope Ablaze does succeed in effectively highlighting the power of words: to help and to hurt and to heal. The author challenges readers to recognize the importance of speaking out in the face of injustice and hypocrisy. She also sensitively depicts the experiences of Pakistani Muslims while highlighting the diversity within Muslim communities and also giving readers a thoughtful look at the practice of Islam. Hope Ablaze is an ambitious first novel that has much to offer in spite of its shortcomings.