"After 85 long years, Fatimah Abdullah is dying, and she knows when her time will come. In fact, it should come just nine days from tonight, the 992nd nightly visit of Scheherazade, the beautiful and immortal storyteller from the epic The Arabian Nights.

Just as Scheherazade spun magical stories for 1,001 nights to save her own life, Fatima has spent each night telling Scheherazade her life stories, all the while knowing that on the 1,001st night, her storytelling will end forever. But between tonight and night 1,001, Fatima has a few loose ends to tie up. She must find a wife for her openly gay grandson, teach Arabic (and birth control) to her 17-year-old great-granddaughter, make amends with her estranged husband, and decide which of her troublesome children should inherit her family's home in Lebanon--a house she herself has not seen in nearly 70 years. All this while under the surveillance of two bumbling FBI agents eager to uncover Al Qaeda in Los Angeles.

But Fatima’s children are wrapped up in their own chaotic lives and disinterested in their mother or their inheritances. As Fatima weaves the stories of her husband, children, and grandchildren, we meet a visionless psychic, a conflicted U.S. soldier, a gynecologist who has a daughter with a love of shoplifting and a tendency to get unexpectedly pregnant, a Harvard-educated alcoholic cab driver edging towards his fifth marriage, a lovelorn matchmaker, and a Texas homecoming queen. Taken in parts, Fatima’s relations are capricious and steadfast, affectionate and smothering, connected yet terribly alone. Taken all together, they present a striking and surprising tapestry of modern Arab American life.

Shifting between the U.S. and Lebanon over the last hundred years, Alia Yunis crafts a bewitching novel imbued with great humanity, imagination, and a touch of magic realism. Be prepared to be utterly charmed."

An awesome fabric of characters. A small village in Lebanon from a long time ago, and current day America in several cities, and with Fatima's generation (those who immigrated), the second generation, the third generation and so on.

This book about Lebanese Americans was among the books I think many had interest in reading... Taking to and releasing in the meet today

Safe journey little book - I hope you'll make many new friends on your travels!

"Don't ever apologize to an author for buying something in paperback, or taking it out from a library (that's what they're there for. Use your library). Don't apologize to this author for buying books second hand, or getting them from bookcrossing or borrowing a friend's copy. What's important to me is that people read the books and enjoy them, and that, at some point in there, the book was bought by someone. And that people who like things, tell other people. The most important thing is that people read... "
— Neil Gaiman

To the finder of this book:
Hello and congratulations! You have not only found yourself a good book, but a whole community of booklovers dedicated to sharing books with each other and the world at large. I hope you'll stick around a bit and get to know BookCrossing --maybe even make a journal entry on this book. You may choose to remain anonymous or to join (its free!)
Feel free to read and keep this book, or to pass it on to a friend or even set it out "in the wild" for someone else to find like you did. If you do choose to join and journal, then you can watch the book as it travels- You'll be alerted by email each time someone makes another journal entry. It's all confidential (you're known only by your screen name and no one is ever given your e-mail address), free, and spam-free. Happy reading!

Thank you for the book aetm! So this is one of the books ("Libanon/USA") you offered as ring books (or actually it's going to be bookray as aetm don't need the book back) here in Finland. I'll try to arrange the ray in a couple of days.

Just a note that this book is hard cover and weights over 500 g - so a courier is recommendable.

Participants:

Margih (Tampere)

I'm sorry, but this book takes time - this is so big book that it's difficult to handle ;) Plus I have so little time to read for the moment... But this is interesting, so I want to finish it :)

I finally managed to finish this. It was really a slow read for me for two reasons: I couldn't take it with me or read in bed, because the book is so big and heavy; and I find the pace of the story also slow, but in a good way :)

I liked the way everyone in the family was introduced; and how different they were. The story got better toward the end. And it was funny also :)

Thanks aetm for sharing this story! I try to get a courier for this book next weekend or otherwise it has to wait a bit that I finish another book also which is going also to Tampere.

This bookray finally moves forward to Margih with Kipsu as the kind courier, thank you!

I was going through a book pile and then noticed I have forgotten to journal it! Sorry for that.

Released at Kortepohja library. Happy reading!