YA LEILA – YA LEILA

By Donia Saleh

LEILA AND AMILA are inseparable, in deep symbiosis that at times makes them feel immortal, but at others can feel like a claustrophobic nightmare. While Leila is quieter, shyer and has an easier time fitting in at school, Amila lives life out loud, not caring what her teachers or other students think about her. Together, they form an alliance against the vegan artsy boys; the school’s popular girls named ’the Glitter Pussies’ after pseudofeminist glitter paintings of vaginas and, worst of all, the traitors, like Yones, who tries his hardest to ignore his cultural background. When there are two of you against the world, who needs other people, right?

THEIR RELATIONSHIP IS shaken when Leila is seduced by the cute vegan Leo, which brings into the fore-front her everlasting dreams of fitting in with the middle class around her. Perhaps she might even give the Glitter Pussies a chance? Is she turning her back on her background, or just trying to assimilate?

YA LEILA IS a novel about loyalty that can equally lift you and confine you, about inherited generational trauma and the intense love between two friends. Nominated for both the Catapult Award and Borås Debut Prize for Best Debut 2020, Ya Leila is written in a darkly funny, fast-paced style and we are treated to a new and refreshing voice in Swedish fiction.

First published by Albert Bonniers, Sweden 2020

Sweden, Albert Bonniers

Saleh can tell a story, write dialogue, depict and describe moods. Her language and form is already there.
– Dagens Nyheter

Saleh’s writing is heartfelt and she has a good ear for emotional subtleties.
– Göteborgs-Posten

Ya Leila is a very promising debut, a sensitive portray of fragile teens, friendship and becoming an adult.
– Svenska Dagbladet

It’s written with timing, humour, precision, frivolity, intuition, distilled observation, and solid compassion. Another word is talent.
– Expressen

Ya Leila is one of the most delightful debut novels of the year.
– Aftonbladet

Ya Leila is a melancholic novel with a satire edge, a glittering black diamond – all in all, a brilliant debut.
– Landskrona Posten

The novel gives a new perspective on several different topics – class, ethnicity, feminism.
– Upsala Nya Tidning

Donia successfully describes the best and the worst of deep-rooted friendships, that can sometimes feel like a straitjacket, in beautiful and razor-sharp diction, and through sometimes anxiety-ridden situations. […] How can one create space to find oneself when breathing the same air and sharing everything with someone else?
– Nöjesguiden

[…] linguistic originality and energy.
– Sydsvenskan

Linguistically forceful debut about sisterhood and problematic feminism.
– Borås Tidning

One of Saleh’s main strengths is how subtle her descriptions are of feeling both attracted and repelled at the same time.
– Kulturnytt

Donia Saleh

BOOKS

Fiction