What Will People Think?

What Will People Think? is the debut novel by Palestinian American author Sara Hamdan, a sharp and heartfelt coming-of-age comedy about secrets, identity, and inherited courage. Its protagonist, Mia, works a safe job as a media fact-checker to satisfy her conservative Arab family while secretly chasing a stand-up comedy career on the stages of New York.

When a bold neighbor pushes Mia to take risks and a forbidden office romance heats up, her comedy grows braver, until a public spotlight threatens to reveal everything. Interwoven is the discovery of her grandmother's diary from 1940s Jaffa, tracing a young woman torn between an expected marriage and her love for a British soldier, all on the eve of displacement during the Nakba.

Praised by NPR and Publishers Weekly and named a Jimmy Fallon Book Club finalist for 2025, the novel blends humor with serious themes of immigration, cultural expectation, and belonging.