In Jamal Smith’s mind sits a tableau of family he’s never really known. From memories stretched by time, he grasps at fragments of an absent father, an abusive mother, cousins he knew as siblings, and a found family of friends he fears to lose.
Jamal is the protagonist of Son of Sin, the debut novel from the prime minister’s literary prize-winning poet Omar Sakr. It begins in western Sydney, where Jamal is being raised by Lebanese aunties, uncles and grandparents – the extended family of his estranged mother, Hala. Guarded by religion and propriety, they keep the past hushed, and brand Jamal as different. But from whispers, the threads of their secrets unfurl, revealing the sprawling traumas that broke them apart.
