Yuma's Smile

(Paperback)

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Amani is a child of middle eastern immigrants, trying to escape the horrors of her home life. Amani hopes to the gain the approval of her abusive mom by doing well in school, but when her mom fails to show up for her high school graduation and berates her instead, Amani realizes that she will never get her moms approval. To make matters worse, Amani's father, a lifelong con artist, is released from prison and returns home.

Tired of the family atmosphere, Amani decides to be the change she wants to see and attempts to see her mother's life from her mother's perspective. After her mother is beaten and publicly shamed by her father's family, Amani learns the abuse and hardships her own mother faces. She lacks support from the very family she needs and instead is blamed for her family's misfortunes, including her husband's imprisonment.

In a hopeless turn of events, Amani's mother, unable to deal with the shame and trauma of her abusive husband and in-laws, attempts suicide, believing it's the only escape from her troubles. Amani and her sisters realize the severity of the situation and their mother's depression but are unsure of how to proceed. Amani decides to seek counsel from outside the familiar confines of their immigrant community.

To break the cycle that has plagued her family for generations, Amani must summon up all her bravery to help her mother and confront the issues causing her mother's depression and the rifts in the family. When her father is once again sent to prison, Amani and her sister convince her mother to divorce her husband and move on to a better life. With the black cloud of the family patriarch removed, Amani and her mother are able to see past each other's foibles and the hardships and restart a healthier relationship, based on mutual understanding.

Author Bio

Ranine is an up and coming author whose talent in stitching words together will leave you entangled in her web. Ever since she first picked up a pencil all she dreamed about was writing novels, finishing her first draft in the 6th grade she knew early on what her passion in life was. Ranine dreams of writing for a living and one day raising a family of book lovers of her own. You can always find her with coffee in one hand and writing with the other.

She is the child of Palestinian immigrants. Her mother immigrated from Jerusalem to America, and Yuma's Smile is her own attempt to make sense of the collision of cultures she saw growing up. Born and raised in the States, Ranine grew up blending these cultures and struggled to find the balance between the two. Ranine holds a B.A in human science and family development from Syracuse University and is currently studying for her Master's in marketing communications.