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!