The Tessellate Institute presents the official Toronto book launch of Monia Mazigh’s debut novel, Mirrors and Mirages. Monia will be in conversation with CBC journalist Pacinthe Mattar about the themes and ideas in her latest book. Copies of the book will be sold at the event and signings available afterwards. Come enjoy an evening of thoughtful discussion and delicious snacks in one of Toronto’s finest bookstores.

This event is held in partnership with House of Anansi Press and Ben McNally Books.

About the book:

In the spirit of Amy Tan’s international bestselling novel, The Joy Luck Club, Mirrors and Mirages is an intricately woven, deftly told story that follows the lives of women and their daughters.

In Mirrors and Mirages, Monia Mazigh lets us into the lives of six women. They are immigrant mothers — Emma, Samia, and Fauzia — guardians of tradition who want their daughters to enjoy freedom in Western society. They are daughters — Lama, Sally, and Louise, a young woman who converted to Islam for love — university students who are clever and computer savvy. They decide for themselves whether or not to wear a veil or niqab. Gradually, these women cross paths, and, without losing their authenticity, they become friends and rivals, mirrors and mirages of each other.

“Mazigh achieves a tour de force in this novel: showing us the truce faces of individual Muslim women … she makes it impossible to shunt them into the category of ‘the Other’.” - Trillium Book Award Jury Citation

About the author:

Monia Mazigh holds a Ph.D. in finance from McGill University. In 2009, she published her memoir, Hope and Despair, about her fight to free her husband, Maher Arar, from a Syrian jail. Her debut novel, Miroirs et Mirages, published originally in French, was a finalist for the Trillium Book Award.

About the interviewer:

Pacinthe Mattar is a Producer for CBC’s national current affairs radio program, The Current.