Good Girl — Book Author Conversation

Nila is 19, German-born Afghan and living in a Berlin housing project with her widowed father. She tells everyone she's Greek. At clubs, at parties, with her older American boyfriend — she'll be anything, anyone, as long as it's not the refugee's daughter people feel sorry for. Set against Berlin's underground scene, this is a coming-of-age novel passing, performance, shame, desire and what happens when the person you've invented starts to crack.

Aria Aber grew up in Germany, born to Afghan refugees. A Whiting Award–winning poet, Good Girl is her debut novel. It has been shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction and named one of TIME's 100 Must-Read Books of 2025. It is being translated into nine languages.