PositiveThe New York Times Book Review...the most distressing element of Hassib’s novel is not the forbidden relationships, the knotty family dynamics or even the revenge-streaked story of the young suicide bomber who took Gameela with him. Rather it is the cutting analysis of how utterly exhausting it is for any one individual to try to contain multitudes. Mark’s and Rose’s stories poignantly underscore the disorientation of having various components of yourself dispersed throughout the world ... In A Pure Heart, Hassib, herself an Egyptian immigrant living in West Virginia,articulates the full-bodied chorus of Egypt’s voices ... In so doing she exposes mankind’s best and worst qualities, our universalities and differences, illuminating all the while the myriad ways in which a heart can be pure.
