Beautiful, sad, funny, life-affirming. I enjoyed this novel immensely; the family feels familiar to me as the daughter of an immigrant. Jacob does a stellar job of structuring her novel and jumping between eras in the lives of Amina and her family. There's a lot of tragedy and suspense leading to it; yet this book doesn't feel heavy or depressing. There is sadness in family histories, but there is also happiness in family and the specific ways in which they function.