Join us on Thursday, March 13 at 7pm when we welcome Samina Ali for the release of her memoir, Pieces You'll Never Get Back, with Kathryn Ma at 9th Ave!
Masks Encouraged for In-Person Attendance
Free to Attend, Please RSVP
Or watch online at the link below
https://youtube.com/live/OGvbAviDXRQ
Praise for Pieces You'll Never Get Back
"Every woman, and every man in her life, should read this book. Beautifully crafted, clear, and disarming, it is not a new motherhood memoir so much as it is a profound meditation on faith and connectedness, the self and uncertainty, and above all, recovery and resurrection. It's an intimate portrait of one woman as she moves amid the wilderness between life and death, and it is astounding." --Nina McConigley, PEN Open Book Award-winning author of Cowboys and East Indians
"In Pieces You'll Never Get Back, Samina Ali weaves a deeply moving story of resilience, spirituality, and the bonds that unite us across faiths and cultures. It is both a call for greater awareness of maternal health and a celebration of our shared humanity. A powerful testament to hope." --Reza Aslan, author of An American Martyr in Persia
"In this vivid and visceral tale of a childbirth gone unimaginably wrong, what rivets most is the author's fierce and enduring will to make herself whole by writing her story. A triumph." --Amy Irvine, author of Trespass and Desert Cabal
A life-altering neurological disorder. A traumatic birth. An unlikely survival.
About Pieces You'll Never Get Back
Pieces You'll Never Get Back is a harrowing and redemptive memoir, in which a new mother must reconstruct her shattered mind, her relationship to her religious upbringing, and her life's purpose
At 29, as a young writer working on her first novel, Samina Ali nearly died giving birth to her son. Miraculously, she survived the unchecked eclampsia that had endangered her pregnancy, instead sustaining major brain injury and falling into a coma as she gave birth. When she woke up, only her deepest memories were intact. Her husband was a stranger to her, she didn't remember having a baby, and any language other than her native Urdu was foreign. Medical consensus was she would never recover--much less write--again.
Advised to think of her brain as a shattered puzzle, Ali began the long and difficult journey of piecing herself back together: learning to walk, speak, and accomplish basic human tasks alongside her newborn. She attempted to reckon with her past identity as a writer and a wife, and her new identity as a mother. Despite her miraculous survival, the disconnect between the old and the new self was devastating. It would be three years before she felt remotely normal, and seven before she was mended and could fully connect with her son.
Ali pairs the story of her "death" and recovery with the parallel narrative of her relationship to her Islamic upbringing and her fluctuating connection to her faith, incorporating meditations on religious narratives of death, the afterlife, resurrection, and reincarnation. Both deeply personal and steeped in religious thought, Pieces You'll Never Get Back is a uniquely propulsive, searching, and ultimately, inspiring work of memoir.
About Samina Ali
Samina Ali is the author of Madras on Rainy Days, which won the French Prix Premier Roman Etranger Award and was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award in Fiction. She is also a recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award. She is a public speaker, and her Tedx talk, "What the Qur'an Really Says About the Hijab," currently has over 8 million views. Her writing has been featured in various outlets, from national NPR to The Economist.
About Kathryn Ma
Kathryn Ma is the author of the widely praised novel The Year She Left Us, which was named a New York Times Editors' Choice and an NPR "Great Read" of the year. Her short story collection, All That Work and Still No Boys, won the Iowa Short Fiction Award and was named a San Francisco Chronicle "Notable Book" and a Los Angeles Times "Discoveries Book." She is a recipient of the David Nathan Meyerson Prize for Fiction and has twice been named a San Francisco Public Library Laureate. Her latest novel, The Chinese Groove, is a New York Times Editors' Choice, an Amazon Editors' Pick, a People magazine Best Book, a Washington Post Best Audiobook, and an Indie Next Pick. It was longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award and the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, and won the California Book Award Silver Medal for Fiction. The Chinese Groove is the 2024 selection for One City One Book by the San Francisco Public Library.
Accessibility
The event is located on the ground level, and there are no stairs between the entrance and event space.
show less
Masks Encouraged for In-Person Attendance
Free to Attend, Please RSVP
Or watch online at the link below
https://youtube.com/live/OGvbAviDXRQ
Praise for Pieces You'll Never Get Back
"Every woman, and every man in her life, should read this book. Beautifully crafted, clear, and disarming, it is not a new motherhood memoir so much as it is a profound meditation on faith and connectedness, the self and uncertainty, and above all, recovery and resurrection. It's an intimate portrait of one woman as she moves amid the wilderness between life and death, and it is astounding." --Nina McConigley, PEN Open Book Award-winning author of Cowboys and East Indians
"In Pieces You'll Never Get Back, Samina Ali weaves a deeply moving story of resilience, spirituality, and the bonds that unite us across faiths and cultures. It is both a call for greater awareness of maternal health and a celebration of our shared humanity. A powerful testament to hope." --Reza Aslan, author of An American Martyr in Persia
"In this vivid and visceral tale of a childbirth gone unimaginably wrong, what rivets most is the author's fierce and enduring will to make herself whole by writing her story. A triumph." --Amy Irvine, author of Trespass and Desert Cabal
A life-altering neurological disorder. A traumatic birth. An unlikely survival.
About Pieces You'll Never Get Back
Pieces You'll Never Get Back is a harrowing and redemptive memoir, in which a new mother must reconstruct her shattered mind, her relationship to her religious upbringing, and her life's purpose
At 29, as a young writer working on her first novel, Samina Ali nearly died giving birth to her son. Miraculously, she survived the unchecked eclampsia that had endangered her pregnancy, instead sustaining major brain injury and falling into a coma as she gave birth. When she woke up, only her deepest memories were intact. Her husband was a stranger to her, she didn't remember having a baby, and any language other than her native Urdu was foreign. Medical consensus was she would never recover--much less write--again.
Advised to think of her brain as a shattered puzzle, Ali began the long and difficult journey of piecing herself back together: learning to walk, speak, and accomplish basic human tasks alongside her newborn. She attempted to reckon with her past identity as a writer and a wife, and her new identity as a mother. Despite her miraculous survival, the disconnect between the old and the new self was devastating. It would be three years before she felt remotely normal, and seven before she was mended and could fully connect with her son.
Ali pairs the story of her "death" and recovery with the parallel narrative of her relationship to her Islamic upbringing and her fluctuating connection to her faith, incorporating meditations on religious narratives of death, the afterlife, resurrection, and reincarnation. Both deeply personal and steeped in religious thought, Pieces You'll Never Get Back is a uniquely propulsive, searching, and ultimately, inspiring work of memoir.
About Samina Ali
Samina Ali is the author of Madras on Rainy Days, which won the French Prix Premier Roman Etranger Award and was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award in Fiction. She is also a recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award. She is a public speaker, and her Tedx talk, "What the Qur'an Really Says About the Hijab," currently has over 8 million views. Her writing has been featured in various outlets, from national NPR to The Economist.
About Kathryn Ma
Kathryn Ma is the author of the widely praised novel The Year She Left Us, which was named a New York Times Editors' Choice and an NPR "Great Read" of the year. Her short story collection, All That Work and Still No Boys, won the Iowa Short Fiction Award and was named a San Francisco Chronicle "Notable Book" and a Los Angeles Times "Discoveries Book." She is a recipient of the David Nathan Meyerson Prize for Fiction and has twice been named a San Francisco Public Library Laureate. Her latest novel, The Chinese Groove, is a New York Times Editors' Choice, an Amazon Editors' Pick, a People magazine Best Book, a Washington Post Best Audiobook, and an Indie Next Pick. It was longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award and the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, and won the California Book Award Silver Medal for Fiction. The Chinese Groove is the 2024 selection for One City One Book by the San Francisco Public Library.
Accessibility
The event is located on the ground level, and there are no stairs between the entrance and event space.
Join us on Thursday, March 13 at 7pm when we welcome Samina Ali for the release of her memoir, Pieces You'll Never Get Back, with Kathryn Ma at 9th Ave!
Masks Encouraged for In-Person Attendance
Free to Attend, Please RSVP
Or watch online at the link below
https://youtube.com/live/OGvbAviDXRQ
Praise for Pieces You'll Never Get Back
"Every woman, and every man in her life, should read this book. Beautifully crafted, clear, and disarming, it is not a new motherhood memoir so much as it is a profound meditation on faith and connectedness, the self and uncertainty, and above all, recovery and resurrection. It's an intimate portrait of one woman as she moves amid the wilderness between life and death, and it is astounding." --Nina McConigley, PEN Open Book Award-winning author of Cowboys and East Indians
"In Pieces You'll Never Get Back, Samina Ali weaves a deeply moving story of resilience, spirituality, and the bonds that unite us across faiths and cultures. It is both a call for greater awareness of maternal health and a celebration of our shared humanity. A powerful testament to hope." --Reza Aslan, author of An American Martyr in Persia
"In this vivid and visceral tale of a childbirth gone unimaginably wrong, what rivets most is the author's fierce and enduring will to make herself whole by writing her story. A triumph." --Amy Irvine, author of Trespass and Desert Cabal
A life-altering neurological disorder. A traumatic birth. An unlikely survival.
About Pieces You'll Never Get Back
Pieces You'll Never Get Back is a harrowing and redemptive memoir, in which a new mother must reconstruct her shattered mind, her relationship to her religious upbringing, and her life's purpose
At 29, as a young writer working on her first novel, Samina Ali nearly died giving birth to her son. Miraculously, she survived the unchecked eclampsia that had endangered her pregnancy, instead sustaining major brain injury and falling into a coma as she gave birth. When she woke up, only her deepest memories were intact. Her husband was a stranger to her, she didn't remember having a baby, and any language other than her native Urdu was foreign. Medical consensus was she would never recover--much less write--again.
Advised to think of her brain as a shattered puzzle, Ali began the long and difficult journey of piecing herself back together: learning to walk, speak, and accomplish basic human tasks alongside her newborn. She attempted to reckon with her past identity as a writer and a wife, and her new identity as a mother. Despite her miraculous survival, the disconnect between the old and the new self was devastating. It would be three years before she felt remotely normal, and seven before she was mended and could fully connect with her son.
Ali pairs the story of her "death" and recovery with the parallel narrative of her relationship to her Islamic upbringing and her fluctuating connection to her faith, incorporating meditations on religious narratives of death, the afterlife, resurrection, and reincarnation. Both deeply personal and steeped in religious thought, Pieces You'll Never Get Back is a uniquely propulsive, searching, and ultimately, inspiring work of memoir.
About Samina Ali
Samina Ali is the author of Madras on Rainy Days, which won the French Prix Premier Roman Etranger Award and was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award in Fiction. She is also a recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award. She is a public speaker, and her Tedx talk, "What the Qur'an Really Says About the Hijab," currently has over 8 million views. Her writing has been featured in various outlets, from national NPR to The Economist.
About Kathryn Ma
Kathryn Ma is the author of the widely praised novel The Year She Left Us, which was named a New York Times Editors' Choice and an NPR "Great Read" of the year. Her short story collection, All That Work and Still No Boys, won the Iowa Short Fiction Award and was named a San Francisco Chronicle "Notable Book" and a Los Angeles Times "Discoveries Book." She is a recipient of the David Nathan Meyerson Prize for Fiction and has twice been named a San Francisco Public Library Laureate. Her latest novel, The Chinese Groove, is a New York Times Editors' Choice, an Amazon Editors' Pick, a People magazine Best Book, a Washington Post Best Audiobook, and an Indie Next Pick. It was longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award and the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, and won the California Book Award Silver Medal for Fiction. The Chinese Groove is the 2024 selection for One City One Book by the San Francisco Public Library.
Accessibility
The event is located on the ground level, and there are no stairs between the entrance and event space.
read more
Masks Encouraged for In-Person Attendance
Free to Attend, Please RSVP
Or watch online at the link below
https://youtube.com/live/OGvbAviDXRQ
Praise for Pieces You'll Never Get Back
"Every woman, and every man in her life, should read this book. Beautifully crafted, clear, and disarming, it is not a new motherhood memoir so much as it is a profound meditation on faith and connectedness, the self and uncertainty, and above all, recovery and resurrection. It's an intimate portrait of one woman as she moves amid the wilderness between life and death, and it is astounding." --Nina McConigley, PEN Open Book Award-winning author of Cowboys and East Indians
"In Pieces You'll Never Get Back, Samina Ali weaves a deeply moving story of resilience, spirituality, and the bonds that unite us across faiths and cultures. It is both a call for greater awareness of maternal health and a celebration of our shared humanity. A powerful testament to hope." --Reza Aslan, author of An American Martyr in Persia
"In this vivid and visceral tale of a childbirth gone unimaginably wrong, what rivets most is the author's fierce and enduring will to make herself whole by writing her story. A triumph." --Amy Irvine, author of Trespass and Desert Cabal
A life-altering neurological disorder. A traumatic birth. An unlikely survival.
About Pieces You'll Never Get Back
Pieces You'll Never Get Back is a harrowing and redemptive memoir, in which a new mother must reconstruct her shattered mind, her relationship to her religious upbringing, and her life's purpose
At 29, as a young writer working on her first novel, Samina Ali nearly died giving birth to her son. Miraculously, she survived the unchecked eclampsia that had endangered her pregnancy, instead sustaining major brain injury and falling into a coma as she gave birth. When she woke up, only her deepest memories were intact. Her husband was a stranger to her, she didn't remember having a baby, and any language other than her native Urdu was foreign. Medical consensus was she would never recover--much less write--again.
Advised to think of her brain as a shattered puzzle, Ali began the long and difficult journey of piecing herself back together: learning to walk, speak, and accomplish basic human tasks alongside her newborn. She attempted to reckon with her past identity as a writer and a wife, and her new identity as a mother. Despite her miraculous survival, the disconnect between the old and the new self was devastating. It would be three years before she felt remotely normal, and seven before she was mended and could fully connect with her son.
Ali pairs the story of her "death" and recovery with the parallel narrative of her relationship to her Islamic upbringing and her fluctuating connection to her faith, incorporating meditations on religious narratives of death, the afterlife, resurrection, and reincarnation. Both deeply personal and steeped in religious thought, Pieces You'll Never Get Back is a uniquely propulsive, searching, and ultimately, inspiring work of memoir.
About Samina Ali
Samina Ali is the author of Madras on Rainy Days, which won the French Prix Premier Roman Etranger Award and was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award in Fiction. She is also a recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award. She is a public speaker, and her Tedx talk, "What the Qur'an Really Says About the Hijab," currently has over 8 million views. Her writing has been featured in various outlets, from national NPR to The Economist.
About Kathryn Ma
Kathryn Ma is the author of the widely praised novel The Year She Left Us, which was named a New York Times Editors' Choice and an NPR "Great Read" of the year. Her short story collection, All That Work and Still No Boys, won the Iowa Short Fiction Award and was named a San Francisco Chronicle "Notable Book" and a Los Angeles Times "Discoveries Book." She is a recipient of the David Nathan Meyerson Prize for Fiction and has twice been named a San Francisco Public Library Laureate. Her latest novel, The Chinese Groove, is a New York Times Editors' Choice, an Amazon Editors' Pick, a People magazine Best Book, a Washington Post Best Audiobook, and an Indie Next Pick. It was longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award and the Joyce Carol Oates Prize, and won the California Book Award Silver Medal for Fiction. The Chinese Groove is the 2024 selection for One City One Book by the San Francisco Public Library.
Accessibility
The event is located on the ground level, and there are no stairs between the entrance and event space.
show less
Date/Times:
1231 9th Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94111
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