About

Award-winning debut authors Ryad Assani-Razaki (The Hand of Iman) and Jemimah Wei (The Original Daughter) come together for a powerful conversation on survival, ambition, and the bonds that shape us. Assani-Razaki’s haunting novel follows Iman and Toumani, two boys in an unnamed African country where dreaming is a luxury and survival demands courage — until a single act of friendship changes their lives forever. Wei’s dazzling first novel explores sisterhood and sacrifice in turn-of-the-millennium Singapore, as Genevieve and her sister Arin face the weight of family expectations and betrayal.

Moderated by Sadaf Ahsan

The Hand of Iman

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The Original Daughter

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Ryad Assani-Razaki

Ryad Assani-Razaki was born in 1981 in Cotonou in the West African state of Benin. In 2009, his short story collection Deux cercles was awarded the Trillium Book Award.

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Jemimah Wei

Jemimah Wei is the author of The Original Daughter, a Good Morning America Book Club pick, a New York Times Editors’ Pick, and an IndieNext pick. She is a National Book Foundation 5 under 35 Honouree, William Van Dyke Short Story Prize winner, and was a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University and Felipe P.

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