Temple Folk

By: Aaliyah Bilal

Narrated by: Amir Abdullah, Chanté McCormick, Soneela Nankani, Leon Nixon, Jade Wheeler

Finalist for the 2023 National Book Award for Fiction

A “splendid and grand collection” (Edward P. Jones, Pulitzer Prize­–winning author of The Known World) portraying the lived experiences of Black Muslims grappling with faith, family, and freedom in America.

In Temple Folk, Black Muslims contemplate the convictions of their race, religion, economics, politics, and sexuality in America. The ten “beautiful and vivid” (Jacqueline Woodson, National Book Award­–winning and New York Times bestselling author) stories in this collection contribute to the bounty of diverse narratives about Black life by intimately portraying the experiences of a community that resists the mainstream culture to which they are expected to accept and aspire to while functioning within the country in which they are born.

In “Due North,” an obedient daughter struggles to understand why she’s haunted by the spirit of her recently deceased father. In “Who’s Down?” a father, after a brief affair with vegetarianism, conspires with his daughter to order him a double cheeseburger. In “Candy for Hanif” a mother’s routine trip to the store for her disabled son takes an unlikely turn when she reflects on a near-death experience. In “Woman in Niqab,” a daughter’s suspicion of her father’s infidelity prompts her to wear her hair in public. In “New Mexico,” a federal agent tasked with spying on a high-ranking member of the Nation of Islam grapples with his responsibilities closer to home.

With an unflinching eye for the contradictions between what these characters profess to believe and what they do, Temple Folk accomplishes the rare feat of presenting moral failures with compassion, nuance, and humor to remind us that while perfection is what many of us strive for, it’s the errors that make us human.

©2022 Aaliyah Bilal (P)2022 Simon & Schuster Audio

Critic reviews

"This unique collection of 10 short stories gathers together various insights on the Black Muslim experience in America. Amir Abdullah, Chanté McCormick, Soneela Nankani, Leon Nixon, and Jade Wheeler come together to dramatize these widely differing voices. Together, they tackle family issues and sexuality, discrimination and grief. From a daughter who is grieving to another daughter who is tracking her father's infidelity—this is an interesting collection of fictional experiences that fans of literature will sink into. Each story has its own focus and cast of characters. The mix of female and male narrators allows the listener to switch more easily among the various stories. This is a volume one can listen to at will, hopping around as the various titles of the individual stories pique one’s interest." —AudioFile

Incredible journey

The book takes you on an incredible journey of emotions, sacrifices and understanding. The author produced an everlasting classic. I’m looking forward to reading it again.

Excellent

I listened continuously, lost in the depth and beauty of Ms. Bilal's prose. This is an outstanding inaugural work and I am reminded of the similar brilliance of Jesmyn Ward's storytelling.

Insightful

I loved this book. Never delved too deep into the lives of Black Muslims and this was so rich and complex. Really opened my mind. Can’t ask for more than that from a book.

Nice read

I liked the development of the characters in their precarious positions in their unique lives,

Beautiful and Challenging

Such a beautiful way to challenge each of us on where our faith really rests, and presenting possibilities of how lives can changes when confronting our own susceptibilities.

My heart

As a Muslim women this was so clear in each phase - speaking my heart as a converted Muslim more than a few times. Alhamdulillah for this amazing book. Loved it.

Award winning book

The story-verse is novel and characters so familiar and complex, creating a collective narrative power I have yet to encounter in a story story collection.

narrator

the narrator did not match the culture of the story. made it very difficult to follow and finish. decided to read instead.