I received this book from Penguin for review. Thank you Gabrielle!
Book Stats from Penguin:
Paperback | 8.26 x 5.23in | 304 pages | ISBN 9780143116264 | 25 Aug 2009 | Penguin | 18 - AND UP
Publishers blurb:
From America to the Middle East and back again— the sparkling story of one girl’s childhood, by an exciting new voice in literary fiction
In this fresh, funny, and fearless debut novel, Randa Jarrar chronicles the coming-of-age of Nidali, one of the most unique and irrepressible narrators in contemporary fiction. Born in 1970s Boston to an Egyptian-Greek mother and a Palestinian father, the rebellious Nidali—whose name is a feminization of the word “struggle”—soon moves to a very different life in Kuwait. There the family leads a mildly eccentric middle-class existence until the Iraqi invasion drives them first to Egypt and then to Texas. This critically acclaimed debut novel is set to capture the hearts of everyone who has ever wondered what their own map of home might look like.
Publicist’s thoughts:
A MAP OF HOME is a humorous, non-stereotypical story about growing up as an Arab girl both in the Middle East and in America and closely mirrors Randa’s life. Nidali, the rebellious daughter of an Egyptian-Greek mother and a Palestinian father, narrates the story of her childhood in Kuwait, her teenage years in Egypt – following the 1990 Iraqi invasion – and her family’s last flight to Texas.
Praise for the Novel:
“ [An] extraordinary debut . . . Jarrar’s lack of sentimentality, and her wry sense of humor, make Home a treasure.”
—People (four stars)“A Map of Home will leave you laughing out loud.”
—Entertainment Weekly“Randa Jarrar takes all the sappy, beloved clichés about ‘where you hang your hat’ and blows them to smithereens in her energizing, caustically comic debut novel.”
—The Christian Science Monitor
Author Bio:
Randa Jarrar was born in Chicago in 1978. She grew up in Kuwait and Egypt, and moved back to the U.S. at thirteen. She is a writer and translator whose honors include the Million Writers Award, the Avery Hopwood and Jule Hopwood Award and the Geoffrey James Gosling Prize. Her fiction has appeared in Ploughshares as well as in numerous journals and anthologies. Her translations from the Arabic have appeared in Words Without Borders: The World Through the Eyes of Writers; recently, she translated Hassan Daoud’s novel, The Year of the Revolutionary New Bread-Making Machine. She currently lives in Austin, Texas. A Map of Home is her first novel.
Visit the author online here. Author interview at Penguin is at this link. Goodreads link here.
Amazon purchasing information linked respectively below US/UK/Canada
/ 
/ 
2 comments:
Shellie...I received this one too; it does sound pretty good. enjoy
Diane - Thanks, I could do with a funny read and this looks like it may be. I will be interested in what you think as well.
Post a Comment