A Tender Struggle

A story about love, marriage, compromise, parenthood and the difference between the life one imagined and reality.* Fifteen years ago, Krista Bremer, a California-bred feminist, surfer, and aspiring journalist, met Ismail Suayah, sincere, passionate, kind, yet from a very different world. One of eight siblings born in an impoverished fishing village in Libya, Ismail was raised a Muslim--and his faith informed his life. When Krista and Ismail made the decision to become a family, she embarked on a journey she never could have imagined, an accidental jihad: a quest for spiritual and intellectual growth that would open her mind and, more important, her heart. A bold piece of writing (and thinking) by an incredibly brave woman. -Elizabeth Gilbert, author of The Signature of All Things A moving, lyrical memoir.-Kirkus Reviews Candid and rich. -Good Housekeeping Unrelenting candor and gorgeous prose. -BookPage Krista Bremer has a very good story. -The New York Times Book Review A beautiful account of [Krista's] jihad, or struggle, to find peace within herself and within her marriage. -The Kansas City Star Lucid, heartfelt, and profoundly humane . . . Navigates the boundaries of religion and politics to arrive at the universal experience of love. -G. Willow Wilson, author of Alif the Unseen This is a memoir worth reading. -*Pittsburgh Post-Gazette