What's up everybody? I'm Tin Bid Armias, and this is NPR's Book of the Day.

There's an intimacy that comes from knowing a place and a community really well.

You get to know its quirks and the people who make it distinct.

For writer Aisha Abdel-Gawad, that place is Brooklyn's Bay Ridge neighborhood, home to a large Arab community,

and one that Gawad writes about with such specificity in her debut novel, Between Two Moons.

In this conversation with NPR's Ari Shapiro, Gawad talks about the characters and community at the

center of her novel, and why she considers it a love letter to Arab Americans.

Here's Ari Shapiro.

In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.

On our new show, Sources and Methods.

NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,

helping you understand why distant events matter here at home. Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Aisha Abdel-Gawad's debut novel is a coming-of-age story about two

teenage girls. Their twins living in Brooklyn.

Their older brother is getting out of prison.

Their parents are immigrants from Egypt.

And the book's title, Between Two Moons, refers to the time period when the book is set.

The entire novel takes place during one month of Ramadan.

I asked Aisha Abdul-Gawad, where

she got the idea to use the holiday as a frame? I think part of it is that I just really love

Ramadan. I look forward to it every year. It's such a special time of year. And then also, I was

...