Customer Reviews

The Night Counter: A Novel

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Scheherazade could learn a thing or two about storytelling from Alia Yunis, who uses the 1001 Nights conceit to tell the tale of Fatima Abdullah, an 85-year-old matriarch who trades beauty tips with Scheherazade as she counts down the nights she thinks she has left to live. Both Fatima and Scheherazade display a lot of L.A. lip, which is not surprising given that Yunis is a filmmaker from L.A. Fatima, a purple-haired Detroit Tigers fan, is a character hard to beat, but she gets competition from her highly dysfunctional family. How glad I was that I didn't have to wait 1001 nights to hear all their stories. But The Night Counter is more than a collection of wonderfully zany characters. It's also a cautionary tale about how living in the past can keep you from living in the present and how little families understand each other.

If Scheherazade, the famous narrator of 1001 Nights, gained immortality beyond the immortality of her words, how do you imagine she would spend her time? In her debut novel, THE NIGHT COUNTER, Alia Yunis writes that she would spend her time collecting more stories.

In this latest reimagining of Scheherazade, she is extracting 1,001 stories from Fatima Abdullah, an aging Lebanese woman living in Los Angeles with her grandson, Amir. Fatima is convinced she has just days to live, and she has a lot to accomplish in that time. She must decide which of her children will inherit the family home back in Lebanon, she must find a wife for Amir (who happens to be gay), she must teach her pregnant teenage great-granddaughter to read the Qur'an in Arabic, and she must keep Scheherazade happy with her stories of her family, including life with her two husbands, Marwan and Ibrahim, and their 10 children.

Fatima arrived in Michigan as a young bride. With no English she relied on her kind-hearted husband Marwan, who had been in the US for many years working at the Ford Motor Company. Tragically, after Fatima is finally getting comfortable in her new home and awaiting the birth of her first child, Marwan dies. Before Laila is born she marries Marwan's close friend Ibrahim, a man who makes her laugh. Ibrahim is a quiet and increasingly distant partner. Still, he raises Laila as his own, and he and Fatima have nine more children.

Decades later the Arab and Muslim communities of the US have grown larger, and Fatima's 10 children and many grandchildren are grown and scattered across the country (and even back in the Middle East). As she senses death approaching, the quirky yet traditional Fatima begins to plan for her family's future without her.

There are several sub-stories in the book. Readers meet all of Fatima's children and grandchildren, and they each get their own story as Scheherazade travels to each of them on her flying carpet. There are several mysteries in these pages as well: Why did Fatima recently divorce Ibrahim and move to California? Why are two shady figures and the FBI spying on the family? Is Scheherazade a figment of Fatima's imagination, or really the ghost of the legendary storyteller?

THE NIGHT COUNTER is sweet and charming and often quite funny, yet it packs an emotional punch at the end. Yunis mostly manages to keep track of her many characters and maintain the primacy of Fatima's story. But sometimes it feels like there is too much going on, and the story becomes cluttered. Still, Yunis, like Scheherazade, is a fantastic guide, and the book overall is a good one.

Fatima's family is intelligent and flawed, loving and sad, fearful and hopeful all at once. Though much of what they deal with is particular to immigrants and minority cultures, they are also just trying to find acceptance, happiness, success and unconditional love in the face of ordinary challenges. Family, love and loss, as well as national, ethnic and religious identity and assimilation, are the major themes here. THE NIGHT COUNTER is a lovely take on family drama and a wonderful illumination of the importance of storytelling.

--- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman

I was initially attracted to the cover, but when I started reading this, I couldn't stop. It's a very funny and very sad look at family tales and love stories--with the ever immortal and lovely Scherherzade of the 1001 Nights coming to modern Los Angeles to the crazy, mixed up world of an 85-year old lady counting down the last days of her life as she decides how to leave things with the four generations of her family now rooted in America. Told from several viewpoints, including that of a bumbling FBI agent, this is a gem of summer read or a rainy afternoon read--or just something to keep on hand because it's humanity will lift your spirits

Lebanese immigrant Fatima Abdullah is dying, but shows no interest in a reconciliation with her estranged husband Ibraham or for that matter with her children sprawled all over the country as she prefers to ignore their issues. She has no desire to see any of her ten offspring; their children except Amir or even her pregnant great-granddaughter; they did not want to hear her prattle about her 1001 Arabian Nights countdown.

Instead she stays with her gay grandson Amir, who welcomes her insanity in Los Angeles as an actor who knows his town is filled with crazies so his attitude is why not one more with his blood. For the last 992 nights ever since Scheherazade visited her demanding she tells her stories, Fatima has complied. When her tales end, Scheherazade insists so does her life; as happens with everyone. With nine to go, the octogenarian expects to be dead next week even as Ibraham wants to be there for her; as does the FBI who believe the Abdullah family are a sleeper terrorist cell because of Amir's name and his association with a former lover under federal surveillance due to his former lover Amir being under federal surveillance.

This is a terrific tale that keeps the audience wondering whether Fatima suffers from dementia or is a clever modern day fantasy. Fatima obviously owns the fast-paced novel as she begins her final countdown to what she expects is her death. Her family especially heartbroken Amir, whose lover dumped him during the countdown, provide solid support as all of them except her host assumes she is certifiable; whereas her host thinks she is an eccentric lovable kook. Sherazade plays a key role, but like the Memorex commercial one will ponder is she real or imagined as does the circular logical FBI finding perceived terrorists under any Arab sounding rock. Alia Yunis provides a powerful modern day family thriller with the twist of the FBI "interrogates" Sherazade.

Harriet Klausner

This was a cute book and overall a fun and easy read. The use of Scheherazade (the storyteller in the classic 1001 Nights) was really a brilliant way to help Fatima, the family matriarch and main character, tell her story. So much so, that it inspired me to re-read that old familiar book of stories about Aladdin, Sinbad and so many other tales.

This novel had some funny touching storylines and then some that just didn't seem as relevant as they could have been. It was like some of them were cut short. I did feel that my lack of understanding of the Lebanaese / Arabic references put me at a bit of a disadvantage and prevented me from getting all of the humor I wish I understood or that the author had articulated perspective a little better. I would like to have walked away with more knowledge that would have equipped me for the next time. I'm sure those with more specific cultural knowledge will appreciate that extra sprinkle of humor that comes with identifying with one's own familiar family influences.

Overall, I enjoyed this book as a light read and am super appreciative of getting to know, through Alia Yunis' words, Scheherazade again.

Not as relevant to a review, but is worth noting; The book jacket design and artwork is gorgeous!

This book was a fun read with lots of great characters.
While the main character is well-developed and interesting, I would have liked if some of the minor characters were more involved in the overall story.
Still some very funny "scenes", and I love the concept of bringing a legendary character into a contemporary tale.

A delightful read, Yunis takes us between time and cultures, generations and within a family. Rather than summarize the narrative, I will simply say this was the highlight of my summer reads. A breath of fresh of air. Moving, clever and a joy to read, I completed this modern 1001 nights in only a few days and look forward to author's next work. This story is for all nationalities that have a complex and diverse family but wouldn't have it any other way.

A brilliant juxtaposition of funny and sad moments in a novel which depicts both Arabs and Americans as funny, humane, and touching individuals - a page turner that interweaves the magic of Hollywood with magic carpets

I was worried that this would just be another book about the struggles of Muslims and Arabs in America post 9-11, and while that layer is here, it is not the heart and soul of this novel, but rather just fleetingly, one of the many, many issues that the five generations of this odd, quirky family, all bonded together by a 70-year old love story, deal with

Wherever you hail from, it will remind of your family and personal relationships and perhaps make you look at them from the other guy's or gal's point-of-view, as The Night Counter so capably does

A highly recommended, wonderful read

The Night Counter by Alia Yunis is a highly worthy read. The main character, Fatima Abdullah, is an 85 year old Arab American immigrant who spent the majority of her life in Detroit, Michigan. When we meet her, she is in Los Angeles where she has lived with her grandson for over three years and is visited nightly by the fabled Scheherazade. The story opens on the 992nd night of Scheherazade's visits and progresses through the 1,001st night when Fatima hopes to learn her own fate. Along the way, we learn about Fatima's marriages, her childhood home in Lebanon and her offspring. As an added bonus, we sit in with two FBI agents eager to exercise The Patriot Act. The story is told third person yet the perspective varies slightly depending on the highlighted character.

As a woman, I can sympathize with Fatima's joys and sacrifices in her life. As an white American, I was able to look through a different set of eyes at the American culture as well as the false assumptions and prejudices generalized to a whole group of people, especially since 9/11. And regardless of gender or ethnicity, I was reminded of the leaps of logic we make based on our own beliefs and outside influence.

I enjoyed the storytelling - both humorous and solemn. And as a student of the human condition, I appreciate the added perspective to my worldview. Now that I'm done with The Night Counter, I miss Fatima - and Scheherazade.

This book is fun to read and entertaining on so many levels. The Night Counter is a wonderful blend of fantasy and family that is worthy of Scheherazade herself. In a twist on the classic story, Scheherazade visits Fatima nightly, to hear her stories. Fatima realizes that her last night of storytelling is quickly on the horizon and she has lots to do and decide before her story comes to an end. As we travel with Fatima (and Scheherazade) through her life past and present in Lebanon and throughout the U.S.A., we find ourselves fascinated observers of lives filled with misery, foolishness, yearning, and love. The Night Counter is a delightful journey through the lives of a big family, who are separated by more than distance and will touch that piece in each of us that is forever bound to and by family.