India, Sept. 18 -- The protagonist of poet Aria Aber's debut novel Good Girl is a second-generation Afghan migrant, Nilab Haddadi, who goes by the ethnically vague 'Nila'. Set out like a classic bildungsroman, the work traces 19-year-old Nila's life as a young rebel enveloped in a haze of drugs, alcohol and artistic fervour in the thumping dark of Berlin's techno clubs. The novel captures the protagonist's journey from chasing highs to coming to terms with the grief of her mother's death and finding her passion in photography. The bildungsroman label is apt because Aber's narrative also traces the formation of an intolerant neo-imperial world order through the portrayal of the city's "ghetto-heart", particularly Gropiusstadt in Neukolln. ...