Emil Hafeez

I’m writing this after reading Wait for the third time, and even now, I am noticing new dynamics and layers; the author pours herself into the novel, a page-turning fiction with a reality rendered in lush and provocative detail. It seems a rare occasion to me, at least, to visualize scenes like these so vividly – to hear and even smell the descriptions she writes – let alone to also feel the emotional weight the book carries in its scenes and relationships. There’s so much here! Overtly this book could be a quick read, with a propulsive plot and beautiful, expansive imagery, but the more time I spend with it, the more it shares, and the more I get out of it. I love the shapeshifting of the relationships between characters, the foreshadowing and isomorphisms, the way time passes and slows, the balance between literal and figurative. This book is many great things, and I imagine could mean so much to so many different people – all facets of a story that is sure to nourish your spirit and salt your desires. The plot follows a strong, loving, sometimes challenging relationship between two sisters (Elise and Sophie) as they face the sociopolitical and economic realities of living in the USA. The novel successfully challenges common representations of immigrant families and wealth inequality, with modern problems and modern solutions, while leveraging humor, love, and an appreciation of beauty and the natural world to great effect. Nested in the Nantucket microcosm of American capitalism, we see how the systems that contextualize Elise and Sophie’s experiences are shared by all of us across the country; we see how our personal wellbeing is wrapped up in our collective wellbeing. I connect with this book in a way I hope many will, and I hope that you find your own ways into it. Personally I saw myself in Elise and Sophie, in how they are always striving to be better people, better friends, children, and siblings, in an often broken system, and I hope you do too.