Aria Aber’s debut novel follows Nila, a young Afghan-German woman navigating identity, desire, and belonging in Berlin. The group read it as a map of what it costs to live between cultures — to be perceived as not-quite-German, not-quite-Afghan, and to have your “goodness” constantly measured against standards you didn’t set.
We discussed how the novel uses Kafka as a reference point (Nila’s obsession with him, the parallels in their displacement), what Marlowe’s experience as a male migrant reveals by contrast, and how Aber’s background as a poet shapes the language. The novel’s title kept coming up: who decides what a good girl looks like, and what happens when you stop trying to be one?