"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."—Publishers Weekly
"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."—Full Stop
"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."—Foreword Reviews (Starred review)
"A gripping, vivid novel that is both a lament and a celebration of how a woman's body binds her to Azerbaijani tradition, and frees her from it. Egana Djabarrova's writing is in turn devastating and hopeful; plainspoken and elegiac. I've never read anything like it."—Claire Oshetsky, author of Poor Deer and Evil Genius
"Egana Djabbarova's wild fever dream of a novel lays bare a world where female utterance is seismic, its eruption a shock of radicalizing violence. In prose marked by intimacy, restraint, and terror, My Dreadful Body introduces a writer of astounding intelligence and power. I could not put it down."—Honor Moore, author of A Termination
"An exquisite Bildungsroman by an exceptional author reading her own body as the bearer of inherited stigmas, offering a thought-provoking journey into what it's like to grow up as a stranger."—Sergei Lebedev, author of Oblivion and Untraceable
"This tour de force short novel recounts the narrator Egana's various neurological disorders . . . It's like discovering over time from a charming, charismatic friend various shocking and fascinating details from her life . . . What a wonder she is."—Russian Life
"An extraordinary novel that translates corporality and estrangement into language."—Olga Grjasnowa, author of All Russians Love Birch Trees
"Inventive and courageous, passionately feminist, Djabbarova's novel sings and rages against generations of silence. 'The mouth was not intended for speaking,' she writes, yet her protagonist rebels against this ancestral prohibition and forges her own path with clarity of purpose and language charged with poetic force."—Olga Zilberbourg, author of Like Water and Other Stories
"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."—Reading in Translation
"Especially powerful . . . deeply personal and universally resonant . . . My Dreadful Body is a fascinating and unforgettable read."—Underrated Reads
"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."—Ms. Magazine Most Anticipated Feminist Books of 2026.
"The novel connects the pains of chronic illness to the impossible standards that our societies set for women's bodies. The novel promises relief for the narrator through reflection and understanding, and I expect it will do the same for any reader who has ever felt, due to internal or external pressures, that their body is failing them."—Words Without Borders Most Anticipated Books of 2026
"One looks ahead with excitement to Egana Djabbarova's future literary career. With her debut novel, she has certainly succeeded in creating an illuminating and poetic work."—Neue Zürcher Zeitung
"Egana Djabbarova writes in vivid imagery and refined, almost poetic language . . . She shows the oppression of women across generations. It is both impressive and admirable that she has broken this cycle and tells the story."—ORF Austrian Radio
"It's shocking how much the repression of women is based upon their physicality and also on how women themselves treat their own bodies. In language that's infinitely sensitive, gentle, and poetic, Egana Djabbarova recounts a brutal and sinister state of affairs."—North German Radio
