Hay Festival Book Club – Namesake
N.S. Nuseibeh in conversation with Taran N. Khan
– Free Online
Winner of the Jhalak Prize 2025, this collection of essays by N.S. Nuseibeh explores what it means to be a young secular Muslim woman today, drawing on stories of her ancestor Nusayba, the only woman warrior to have fought alongside the Prophet.
By seeking to understand her namesake in the context of her own twenty-first century concerns, Nuseibeh links our current ideas of Muslims and Arabs with their origins, exploring myth-making and identity, religion and nationhood, feminism and race.
As intimate as they are thoughtful, these linked essays offer a dazzling exploration of heritage, gender and the idea of home, while also showing how connecting with our history can help us understand ourselves and others today.
Read it? Let us know what you think on TikTok, X, Facebook and Instagram using #HFBookClub.
Further reading
British-Palestinian writer NS Nuseibeh wins Jhalak prose prize for writers of colour https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/jun/04/british-palestinian-writer-ns-nuseibeh-wins-jhalak-prose-prize-for-writers-of-colour
An experts’ guide: culture to help understand the Israel-Palestine conflict https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/12/experts-guide-to-the-israel-palestine-conflict
About the author
N.S. Nuseibeh is a British-Palestinian writer and researcher, born and raised in East Jerusalem. Her interests include issues around identity, ethics, inequality and education. She has previously written for the Atlantic and been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Namesake won the Giles St Aubyn Award first prize as a work-in-progress. It also won the Jhalak Prose Prize 2025 and the Guild of Food Writers Award 2025.
ABOUT HAY FESTIVAL BOOK CLUB
Timeless titles to offer you a break from the day to day. Can't decide what to read next? Follow your curiosity and join Hay Festival on a journey to imagine the world anew through great literature. Unconstrained by genre or form these are our monthly picks of great books worth reading (or re-reading) right now.
Throughout the month, we'll share interesting links and articles relating to our selection on social media using #HFBookClub and invite you all to get involved with your questions and comments. Each selection will also be marked with a free online event.
If you'd like to recommend a book for consideration, get in touch via bookclub@hayfestival.org.
Happy reading!
Supported by Unwin Charitable Trust, in partnership with the Jhalak Prize 2025.
Buy the book for this event
Namesake
I may not be brave enough, but somewhere deep inside of me there is, perhaps, the kernel of someone who is.
That brave someone was the legendary Nusayba bint Ka'ab al Khazrajia, who fought alongside the Prophet Muhammad at the dawn of Islam, the author N.S Nuseibeh's ancestor. In drawing on Nusayba's stories, Nuseibeh delves into the experience of being an Arab woman today and in the distant past - taking her from superheroes and the glorification of violence to the rise of Arab feminism, to what courage looks like in the context of interminable conflict. By seeking to understand her namesake in the context of her own twenty-first century concerns, Nuseibeh links our current ideas of Muslims and Arabs with their origins, exploring myth-making and identity, religion and nationhood, feminism and race.
As intimate as they are thoughtful, these linked essays offer a dazzling exploration of heritage, gender and the idea of home, while also showing how connecting with our history can help us understand ourselves and others today.
