Behind You is the Sea: The Dazzling Debut Novel Exploring Lives of Palestinian Families

(Hardback)

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Description

A Most Anticipated Book of 2024 by Ms Magazine, Lithub and Elle.

With humour and poignancy, Behind You Is the Sea delves into the intimate lives of three primary Palestinian immigrant families in America -the Baladis, the Salamehs, and the Ammars- whose destinies and struggles electrify the community dynamics, occasionally sparking tension and turmoil.

Through shifting perspectives, it intricately weaves a rich social tapestry filled with weddings, funerals, shattered hearts, and closely-guarded secrets. This captivating narrative amplifies the voices of a diverse Palestinian community, capturing the struggles of young activists pushing against tradition and the marginalised labouring for survival. Lives intersect across class, generation, and religion, painting a vivid portrait of resilience and complexity.

Reviews

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'We desperately need more books like this in which Palestinian people are presented as beautiful, richly complex human beings, not consigned to insulting, diminishing references. Gratitude to Susan Muaddi Darraj for her very necessary, beautiful work' - Naomi Shihab Nye

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'Susan Muaddi Darraj's Behind You is the Sea is a powerful and moving novel about the lives of Palestinian immigrants. Told in rich, lush prose, this propulsive and beautiful novel will stay with me for a long time. I loved it' - Brandon Hobson, National Book Award finalist and author of The Removed

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'Behind You Is the Sea sweeps readers along as its characters search for love, dignity, and belonging while carving out their own unique destinies. The result sometimes defies cultural tradition and risks deep losses, but these characters always land closer to their personal truths. With tenderness and fitting humor, Muaddi Darraj deftly weaves multiple Arab American voices into a resonant chorus of humanity' - Sahar Mustafah, author of The Beauty of Your Face

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'With this unforgettable collection of stories, Susan Muaddi Darraj assumes a unique place in American letters, her Palestinian sensibilities animating universal truths of the human condition. With gritty realism and poetic grace, she writes not simply of survival, but of dignity and flawed nobility in a world overflowing with cynicism and pain. From beginning to end, this novel-in-stories is filled with characters not easily forgotten, and the final story is, quite simply, one of the best that I have ever read. I am grateful for this book' - Frye Gaillard, author of A Hard Rain

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'Not the Arabian Nights, but a new Arabian Days for our time, the intricately interlocked stories of Behind You Is the Sea bring us richly detailed news of the Palestinian immigrant experience in America...' - Madison Smartt Bell, author of All Souls' Rising, Child of Light: A Biography of Robert Stone, and Behind the Moon

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Author Bio

Susan Muaddi is the author of A Curious Land, which earned an American Book Award and was a finalist for a Palestine Book Award. In 2018, she was named a Ford Fellow by USA Artists. A past winner of the Maryland State Art Council's Independent Artist Award, she is also the author of Farah Rocks, the first children's book series to feature a Palestinian-American character. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland, and teaches at John Hopkins University.