“Renders you speechless, demanding recognition for its searing vulnerability and astute cultural criticism…My Dreadful Body offers a piercing feminist critique of the systemic silencing and erasure of women’s agency.”

“Djabbarova debuts with a potent portrait of illness and gender oppression in contemporary Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Russia…This passionate and lyrical work packs a stinging punch.”

“A woman maps cultural expectations and desires onto her ailing body in Egana Djabbarova’s singular novel…The book blooms…An incisive novel, My Dreadful Body celebrates women’s agency, mourns physical losses, and rebels against inherited boundaries.”

“Meticulously detailed and deeply reflective, My Dreadful Body is an accomplishment of both form and narrative.”

“Essential feminist, anticolonial reading…My Dreadful Body is about power. The power of one nation to colonize another, which is in turn echoed by the power of men to control women. It is about having the power to be in control of one’s own body. But it is also about having the power to fight back.”

“In her debut novel, Egana Djabbarova tells the story of a young woman whose neurological disorder makes her life in a strict Muslim Azerbaijani community in Russia even more challenging, but also brings unexpected liberation.”

“In her autobiographical novel, My Dreadful Body, beautifully translated by Lisa C. Hayden, she explores different parts of herself with the ruthlessness of a physician and the care of a poet…creating a rich tapestry.”