These Impossible Things

Malak Abdel-Aziz is one of the protagonists of These Impossible Things. She and the other two protagonists, Jenna and Kees, are best friends. Malak struggles with understanding the extent to which she can or should define herself in relation to her community. This manifests itself in her move to Cairo, which satisfies her longstanding feeling that she will find meaning by returning to Egypt, where she was born. She feels pulled between her Egyptian family’s cultural values and the culture of England, where they live, so she believes that returning to her home country will allay some of these contradictions. While she has many positive experiences in Egypt, especially with family and friends, she also experiences some of the problems of the country, exemplified by the January 2011 revolution.  Ultimately, Malak comes to understand that the contradictions she experiences lie within her and are not external.  

Malak’s primary arc in the novel has to do with her romantic attachments. At the beginning of the novel, she is in love with Jacob, who is a white Englishman and an atheist. They break up because she doesn’t see a future with him since he does not fit her mold for a future spouse.