Heard the buzz

Montreal writer Toula Drimonis posted about my book on Instagram. It was beyond thrilling. I don't know her personally, but she's got a fierce byline. Full text:

"I picked up my latest read at the @salonlivremtl because I had heard good buzz about it and was not disappointed...This lovely coming-of-age story about a young Palestinian-Canadian woman’s journey in the late ‘80s to find herself and her cultural identity while travelling to Egypt to reconnect with her father is vibrant, colourful, and beautifully told...

The reader falls in love with Nadia and wants to know where she’ll end up as she navigates her way through Egypt, discarding old connections and making new ones along the way, and exposing herself to a whole new - as yet undiscovered - side to her sexuality. Her love affair with Manal is an integral part of the story, but her reviewed love affair with the Middle East is just as vital a motivating force in everything she does...Montreal writer Leila Marshy has written a compelling first book, one teeming with masterful descriptions of what the protagonist sees and feels.

“And then there was Daniel. He was standing on the top step just outside the hotel’s doors. He had been watching her approach from across the Midan. A great film covered him, something impermeable, like the many layers of Vaseline that swimmers put on when they wanted to cross frigid Lake Ontario. They embraced but she could feel herself sliding off.” What an absolutely gorgeous way to describe falling out of love and connection with someone.

Published by @llp.lle_mtl, this is a lovely first book that straddles the multiple worlds that children of immigrants often inhabit, the many cultures they’re part of, the push and pull of belonging somewhere, but not quite belonging anywhere; the constant longing for a sense of home. I enjoyed it very much."