Press

Reviews

“Ibrahim writes with intensity and empathy, drawing believably complex characters who are understandably torn between bleak alternatives. Things Are Good Now feels fresh and raw and real. Amid the disheartening racism and sexism are the pull of patriotism, the solidity of traditionalism and ultimately, mercifully, the power of even small glimpses of optimism.” Marcia Kaye in Toronto Star

“Things Are Good Now makes clear that asylum isn’t the same as resolution. As Canada expects only increased numbers of asylum seekers in 2018, this is essential fiction for right now.” Jade Colbert in The Globe & Mail

“Things Are Good Now should be included on every to-be-read list. Each story is powerful and important, and each voice, while fictional, is a perfect representation of hard truths.” Jemicah Colleen Marasigan in THIS Magazine

“Things Are Good Now is astute in its ability to cross borders, genders and ideologies with an artful and measured tone that slips in insights in a subtle fashion. Ultimately, this eminently readable collection asks thought-provoking questions about deep issues, like belonging, acceptance and the precarious nature of progress.”  The Altitude Report, Air Canada

“It’s a book fit for an era of border walls and Brexit, …These are grass-is-greener parables about the longing to leave one place and the disappointment of arriving in another.” Toronto Life

“While the stories are all political, they do not share a uniform opinion or ideology… Ibrahim’s story asks the increasingly pressing question, ‘What does it mean when the place you consider home cannot accommodate the person you want to be?'” J.C. Sutcliffe in Quill & Quire

“The desire to belong authentically to a nation, to align one’s identity markers and political ideals with its values, to be accepted by this authority and protected in return—it resembles the meaning one looks for in family. But how do you love a nation that betrayed, imprisoned, or otherwise hurt you and your loved ones? This is the question nagging at the heart of Djamila Ibrahim’s debut short-story collection, Things Are Good Now.” Rudrapriya Rathore in Literary Review of Canada

“These tightly constructed but complex stories are about the ways we remember and love our homes, either the ones we come from or the ones we are forced to create.” The Record

Author Michelle Berry recommends Things Are Good Now as a must read for Canada Day on Ontario Morning with Wei Chen, CBC Radio (46 mins in).

Sean Wilson, director of the Ottawa International Writers Festival recommends Things Are Good Now as a must read on All in a Day with Alan Neal, CBC Radio (9 mins in).

Interviews

Other Press

  • One of 10 books to be excited about in 2018 Now Toronto
  • One of 6 Black Canadian writers to watch in 2018 CBC Books
  • One of 14 Great Canadian Collections to Read to Celebrate Short Story Month CBC Books
  • One of 18 Canadian women writers to read in 2018 CBC Books
  • One of 20 Black Writers to Read All Year Round Room Magazine
  • One of the most anticipated fiction of spring 2018 49thshelf