Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on August 9, 2022 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.
The Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia
The Bruising of Qilwa is the debut novella from Persian-American author Naseem Jamnia. The story is based upon their research/personal-history into their own heritage coming from Iran/Persia, and the knowledge that even as they are proud of some of the accomplishments historically of their people, such acknowledgements occurred while their people were oppressing and making use of others - even as now their people are often the oppressed ones. And so The Bruising of Qilwa features upon a non-binary refugee desperate to help their family and their people, a people who once were on top and now are refugees in the land of their former victims and struggle accordingly.
And it's a very effective story, if perhaps reliant a bit too much on late dialogue to hammer one of those themes, following its protagonist Firuz as they try to make it in their new land, hide their blood magic while helping those who need healing at a clinic for the poor and refugees, and help their brother and a girl they find with similar but more powerful blood magic. It's not a story with easy answers, or easily classifiable characters into "good" or "evil" (although there are certainly a few greedy ones), but it's really well done with some interesting questions and a strong protagonist who I really cared for.
Some more specifics after the jump:
Quick Plot Summary: Firuz-e Jafari escaped the slaughter of her people, the Sassanians, as a refugee from the country of Dilmun. Now on the streets of the City-State of Qilwa, she searches for a way to support their family, their mother and brother. To their surprise, they find a place working at a clinic run by Kofi, the only man willing to treat refugees and the indigent, people like Firuz. Firuz doesn't reveal their secret - that their magic is blood magic, the dangerous magic for which their people were persecuted, but Kofi doesn't seem to care, and Firuz finds a place helping there.
But even at the clinic, Firuz finds that they can't do enough for their family and people. Their magic isn't ready to help their brother Parviz with an alignment, so their body can fit who they are. They find another orphaned refugee with incredibly strong blood magic, who Firuz tries to teach despite their own lack of full training. And there's a strange disease Firuz has begun to see on some patients and bodies, one which bears ties to blood magic, used in a dangerous and untrained fashion.....
Thoughts: The Bruising of Qilwa features a protagonist in Firuz whose plights and desires are so very easy to understand and care about. They first want to support their family and to do so in a way that allows them to help their people - but they also want to hide the power inside them that could lead to persecution. They want to help their brother magically transition their body like Firuz was able to do in their original homeland, but Firuz has never used her power in that way and doesn't feel comfortable with attempting it until they're sure. And when they find an orphan with blood magic power, rather than risk that orphan misusing it and harming people, or coming to harm in fear, they take them in and try to help them.
In short, Firuz's story is the story of someone with power who is now oppressed, and who is desperately trying to use that power to help without invoking the fear that got so many of their people killed. And that's very much the underlying story of this novella, as it becomes revealed that Firuz's people were once the oppressors, making their new nation's fear and distrust of refugees not completely unreasonable (although this revelation occurs in a long speech in the climax of the story, which kind of feels pushed in). And the conflict faced by Firuz, as well as the others around them, form their family to friends to the eventual revealed "antagonist" makes it so that there is no way to do a clear right thing, as there are no good options, and no right choice, leading to an ending that is optimistic perhaps....without being clear about whether it was necessarily the best possible outcome.
In short, a very interesting novella, whose characters are extremely well done and understandable, based upon a culture (Persia) that is different from the Western one people are probably familiar with. Definitely worth a read and I will look forward to more from Jamnia.
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