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Behind You Is the Sea

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Behind You Is the Sea

By: Susan Muaddi Darraj
Narrated by: Rasha Zamamiri, Ali Nasser
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About this listen

An exciting debut novel that gives voice to the diverse residents of a Palestinian community in Baltimore. Funny and touching, Behind You Is the Sea brings us into the homes and lives of three main Palestinian immigrants families—the Baladis, the Salamehs, and the Ammars.

Their various fates and struggles cause their community dynamic to sizzle and sometimes explode: The wealthy Ammar family employs young Maysoon Baladi, whose family struggles financially, to clean up after their spoiled teenagers. Meanwhile, Marcus Salameh, whose aunt married into the wealthy Ammar family, confronts his father in an effort to protect his younger sister for "dishonoring" the family. Only a trip to Palestine, where Marcus experiences an unexpected and dramatic transformation, can bridge this seemingly unbridgeable divide between the two generations.

Behind You Is the Sea faces stereotypes about Palestinian culture head-on and, shifting perspectives to weave a complex social fabric replete with weddings, funerals, broken hearts, and devastating secrets.

©2024 Susan Muaddi Darraj (P)2024 Harper collins Audio Coming of Age Family Life Genre Fiction Historical Fiction World Literature Heartfelt Funny Tear-jerking Middle East
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An enjoyable story which captured well the difficulties of being an emigrant and adapting to a new culture

An enjoyable story

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This is an excellent collection of intertwined short stories about a Palestinian community in Baltimore. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I'd read it in print, as it was a bit difficult to keep up with who was related to who on audiobook, but I found the family dynamics really interesting.

Fascinating collection

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