An Emotion of Great Delight

Written by Tahereh Mafi

Narrated by Lanna Joffrey

From bestselling and National Book Award–nominated author Tahereh Mafi comes a stunning novel about love and loneliness, navigating the hyphen of dual identity, and reclaiming your right to joy—even when you’re trapped in the amber of sorrow.

It’s 2003, several months since the US officially declared war on Iraq, and the American political world has evolved. Tensions are high, hate crimes are on the rise, FBI agents are infiltrating local mosques, and the Muslim community is harassed and targeted more than ever. Shadi, who wears hijab, keeps her head down.

She's too busy drowning in her own troubles to find the time to deal with bigots.

Shadi is named for joy, but she’s haunted by sorrow. Her brother is dead, her father is dying, her mother is falling apart, and her best friend has mysteriously dropped out of her life. And then, of course, there’s the small matter of her heart—

It’s broken.

Shadi tries to navigate her crumbling world by soldiering through, saying nothing. She devours her own pain, each day retreating farther and farther inside herself until finally, one day, everything changes.

She explodes.

An Emotion of Great Delight is a searing look into the world of a single Muslim family in the wake of 9/11. It’s about a child of immigrants forging a blurry identity, falling in love, and finding hope—in the midst of a modern war.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Jun 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9780063061361

Tahereh Mafi

Tahereh Mafi is the #1 international bestselling and National Book Award nominated author of over a dozen books, including the Shatter Me series, the Woven Kingdom series, A Very Large Expanse of Sea, and An Emotion of Great Delight. Her books have been translated into over thirty languages. She lives in Southern California with her husband, fellow author Ransom Riggs, and their daughter. You can find her online at taherehmafi.com.

Reviews for An Emotion of Great Delight

[Smriti Sant · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Good for YA perhaps? But also, not really. There are better books out there. Cringeworthy lines. Not a good execution of what sounded like a good plot. Terrible. :(( I'm so sad.

[Fav · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

this was sad but I enjoyed it more than I thought I would

[Ana LibrariAna · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Absolutely beautiful! Emotional to the brim... and then some. The writing was emotional and soothing at the same. So artistic in its form that was so evident even via audio book which was superbly done. It helped me connect to the book even more. Listening to Farsi was more authentic than me trying to guess how to pronounce it.

[Lawsden-Avenue WallStreet · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My emotions ran through remembrance of my first love 34 years prior to my present love now.Likewise, keeping family secrets that destroyed me. I resonated, well.

[Jarm · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

idk what exactly is the point of this book. the ending felt abrupt and there were things that shoulve been explored more instead of randomly giving the spotlight to the romance (a hetero one for that matter. ugh ://)

[dairyqueen84 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If there had been some resolution, I might have given this 5 stars. The writing was lyrical at times. Shadi is dealing with so much and it almost seems like there are too many issues but Mafi makes it work. Shadi's brother dies, her mother is self-harming and depressed, her father is in the hospital, and her sister is too busy trying to keep the household running. I listened to the book which was great for the pronunciation of the Farsi phrases and sentences, which Mafi always translated. But it was hard with the timeline, last year and 2003. It was unclear when last year was. I might have to reread this one with my eyes. The ending was too abrupt for me.

[bookwyrmm_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Lots of good intentions behind this novel, but it was way too slice-of-life for my taste.

[hccpsk · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Tahereh Mafi is an excellent writer, and there are some interesting pieces to her new book, An Emotion of Great Delight, but it needed a little bit more time in the oven. Shadi’s life is falling apart — her brother died, her father is sick, and her best friend hates her. She cannot focus on anything, but she needs to keep it together for her mother and to get into a good college. Mafi handles a lot of the high school angst and Muslim family dynamics very well, but she lost her way somewhere. Random characters, some unbelievable plotlines, and an ending that makes no sense at all really drag this book down.