Spanning several decades, Ghassan Zeineddine's debut collection examines the diverse range and complexities of the Arab American community in Dearborn, Michigan. In ten tragicomic stories, Zeineddine explores themes of identity, generational conflicts, war trauma, migration, sexuality, queerness, home and belonging, and more.
Peaceful and domestic, funny and sincere. They are also honest about the sadness and exhaustion of trying to assimilate into a culture that perpetually rejects you ... The stories are connected by history, by ambition, by a myth of a nation that never manifests but is reborn again and again in the immigrant gaze.
A short story collection sparkling with humor and charming insight ... With an uncanny talent for peering deep into his characters' souls, and drawing on the basic humanity they share with their American neighbors, Zeineddine's stories illuminate the vast, comforting similarities culturally divergent communities share with one another.
