I was shocked but maybe not surprised to learn that it took Marshy ten years to write this novel. Perhaps that was meant to be, as to my eyes it contains nothing extraneous, nothing without meaning. A young woman who has lived her whole life in Canada flies to Egypt in a fit of decisiveness that leaves her almost immediately upon arrival. What follows is a coming-of-age in late 1980s (I believe 1987-1988?) Cairo as Nadia stumbles her way into personhood. Can Nadia claim to be Palestinian when she's never touched its soil? Is she lesbian, bisexual? Is she Arab, Canadian, something else? Do any of those qualifiers matter? This is a beautiful book that I'll gladly reread.