My Dreadful Body

Djabbarova debuts with a potent portrait of illness and gender oppression in contemporary Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Russia. Growing up in Russia in an Azerbaijan household, the unnamed narrator begins seeing doctors at an early age for a mysterious debilitating illness that is eventually diagnosed as generalized dystonia, a movement disorder that was initially thought to be multiple sclerosis. As a young woman, the condition relegates her to spinsterhood, which she considers a mixed blessing, as it points her toward a life devoted to literature. With each chapter titled after a specific body part, she conveys the various ways that she and the other women in her life are sequestered from society. For example, in “Tongue,” she reflects on how women “held back the most important, large, brave, lavish, and truthful words” when speaking to men, and how her outsider status as Azeri isolates her even further at school, where others speak Russian. In “Hair,” she describes her maternal and paternal grandmothers shaving their hair while terminally ill in Georgia and Azerbaijan, respectively. The novel ends with a tender depiction of the narrator’s birth, showing her mother stoically enduring the pain of a difficult delivery. This passionate and lyrical work packs a stinging punch. (Apr.)