I give up. I don't like the main character, she is so whiny. It's also taking way too long for the novel to kick into gear.

This book didn't draw me in right away, but it eventually won me over, hard. It's an #OwnVoices story about Nadia, a queer Palestinian-Canadian woman who travels to Egypt in the late 1980s to track down her father whom she has not seen in years. She finds and gets to know him anew, but she also meets and falls in love with an Egyptian woman artist, Manal.

There's a wonderful journey of Nadia reconnecting with her Palestinian heritage, as she meets many other Palestinians (taxi drivers, booksellers, a doctor) who don't hesitate to accept her as Palestinian and reach out to connect. Nadia is humbled and rejuvenated. There is of course also her father, whom she slowly begins to see as a flawed adult human being, instead of only the father who has disappointed her.

The story is set mostly in Cairo, which is a complicated, contradictory character unto itself. I have never been there, but the city really came alive in my mind as I read this book. The beauty of the art, food, generosity of people, poverty, stink of animals and defecation in the street, chaotic traffic, all the details of everyday life in Cairo. Manal is Nadia's guide as well as for the reader, and she is a passionate, opinionated, and lively one. I loved her.

Beautiful writing; thoughtful, nuanced content about art, family, conencting with your heritage, Palestinian and Egyptian cultures and politics, Arabic language, and the generosityof strangers. I really loved this book, and am sad it sat on my shelf for over a year before I finally read it!

Full review on my blog!

A sensitive, artistically wrought story on several levels, The Philistine had me eager to return to it time after time. It was one of those reads that turned out better than expected, although I certainly didn’t have low expectations for it. One never knows with a first novel. Will it be interesting and well-written enough that you want to read the author’s next book? Or do you hope (or even care if) the author never writes another word? I can definitely state that The Philistine and Ms. Marshy fall into the first category. A five-star debut. Full review here: http://bit.ly/thephilistine

A nice read. Not mind blowing, but it was nice entertainment. Identity is a central theme of this book, and I think the author did a fantastic job at exploring it, especially when it comes to family, nationality, and what it means to be partly from somewhere, raised elsewhere and navigating different cultures.