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thesapphiccelticbookworm's review
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Thank you to Netgalley and Transworld Publishers for an early copy of this book.
Suad Aldarra was born and raised in Saudi Arabia. She felt stifled by the sexist, and oppressive regime and longed to move to Syria where her parents were from and where she spent many happy summers. After finishing school she manages to get into Damascus University, where she revelled in her new-found freedom.
Then war came and everything changed. Thanks to her degree she was eventually able to move to Ireland on a work visa and later her new husband was able to follow her. But with culture shock, stress of uncertainty about when she could she her family and friends again, the grief for the life and land she had to leave behind, reaching safety didn't end her troubles.
This was an interesting, well written and very accessible book. It was very interesting to see Aldarra's complicated relationship with her family and her try and reconcile her religion and it's place in her new life.
Being Irish myself, I found it fascinating to see the perspective of someone moving her from an very different world, and adjusting to the people, the way of life, the weather and the language (Hiberno-English, as opposed to the English she had previously learned). I couldn't help comparing and contrasting Aldarra's experience with this and my own father's; he moved from another European country to Ireland in the 1970's, so his experience was wildly different.
I found this book very enlightening on an experience I knew little about.
Suad Aldarra was born and raised in Saudi Arabia. She felt stifled by the sexist, and oppressive regime and longed to move to Syria where her parents were from and where she spent many happy summers. After finishing school she manages to get into Damascus University, where she revelled in her new-found freedom.
Then war came and everything changed. Thanks to her degree she was eventually able to move to Ireland on a work visa and later her new husband was able to follow her. But with culture shock, stress of uncertainty about when she could she her family and friends again, the grief for the life and land she had to leave behind, reaching safety didn't end her troubles.
This was an interesting, well written and very accessible book. It was very interesting to see Aldarra's complicated relationship with her family and her try and reconcile her religion and it's place in her new life.
Being Irish myself, I found it fascinating to see the perspective of someone moving her from an very different world, and adjusting to the people, the way of life, the weather and the language (Hiberno-English, as opposed to the English she had previously learned). I couldn't help comparing and contrasting Aldarra's experience with this and my own father's; he moved from another European country to Ireland in the 1970's, so his experience was wildly different.
I found this book very enlightening on an experience I knew little about.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism and War
Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Racism, Dementia, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Alcohol
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
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