In Berlin's artistic underground, where drugs and techno fill warehouses still pockmarked from the wars of the twentieth century, nineteen-year-old Nila at last finds her tribe. Born in Germany to Afghan refugees, raised in public housing graffitied with swastikas, drawn to philosophy, photography, and sex, Nila has spent her adolescence disappointing her family while searching for her voice as a young woman and artist. Then in the haze of Berlin's legendary night life, Nila meets Marlowe, an American writer whose fading literary celebrity opens her eyes to a life of personal and artistic freedom. As Nila finds herself pulled further into Marlowe's controlling orbit, ugly, barely submerged racial tensions begin to roil Germany—and Nila's family and community. After a year of running from her future, Nila's stops to ask herself the most important question: who does she want to be?
Once in a blue moon a debut novel comes along, announcing a voice quite unlike any other, with a layered story and sentences that crackle and pop, begging to be read aloud. Aria Aber’s splendid Good Girl introduces just such a voice ... The book’s not without wobbles, but Aber, an award-winning poet, strikes gold here ... A bildungsroman, gorgeously packed with Nila’s epiphanies on literature and philosophy, a tale of seductive risks and the burdens of diaspora.
The novel is not driven by a forceful plot ... Aber constructs a vivid world in this novel, one that is tough and relentless; her Berlin feels grimy and smells terrible. She unwinds complex histories and legacies — of people, places and politics alike — with a deft touch. It can become tedious, though, to be trapped in the head of such an insistently self-destructive person
Lush ... The story feels overstuffed with reflections on decorum, Islamic culture, and living authentically, and a hate-crime incident is treated like a minor speed bump. Yet readers will live viscerally through the vivid histrionics and adventures of obstinate and libidinous Nila as she tries to achieve her version of freedom.
