Palestine 1990
Seventeen-year-old Isra prefers reading books to entertaining the suitors her father has chosen for her. But, succumbing to her parents’ wishes, the naïve and dreamy girl finds herself betrothed and married to a American man. Before long she is living in Brooklyn, a strange land, becoming a mother to four daughters and her life changed forever.
Brooklyn 2008
Eighteen-year-old Deya, Isra’s oldest daughter, must meet with potential husbands at her grandmother’s insistence, though her only desire is to go to college. But fate has a will of its own, and soon Deya will find herself on an unexpected path that leads her to shocking truths about her parents, the past, and her own future.
A truly eye-opening journey from Palestine to Brooklyn, Etaf Rum’s sublime debut is steeped in culture, history, courage and most importantly friendship. It is easy to take picking up a book or popping to the local shop for granted. For Isra her life is a living nightmare, one she must escape by any means necessary.
Eighteen years later her own daughter is heading down the very same and miserable path to live a life that she does not want, with a man that she does not love until a unexpected family member returns to keep Deya from her doomed fate and will leave her questioning everything she thought she knew about her parents.
Published on 12th December 2019
Paperback £8.99
Available in eBook and Audiobook