A Saltwater Requiem

Turning an overlooked fact—that around 150 Arabic names appeared on the passenger manifest of the Titanic—into fiction, this sweeping novel follows a family leaving the Levant region for America and meeting their fates both on and off the storied ship.

Elias is the golden son of Tanios, patriarch of an affluent Christian family in the village of Saidnaya. But when Elias is seized by the Ottoman army the morning after his elaborate wedding, it sets off a chain of misfortunes that even his clairvoyant aunt Samira couldn't have foreseen.

As the family makes its epic journey to America, by way of France and England, their tensions, secrets, and agendas bubble up from below the surface. Eldest daughter Mariam fights for autonomy from her mother's rigid expectations. Youngest son Joseph makes a dashing new friend and gets swept up in London's publishing scene. Trusted maid Sawsan tries to salvage her dignity amid an illicit affair. Who will get left behind, and who will careen forward—and which outcome will leave them in better stead?

Replete with ancient curses, whispered legends, and a heartwarming queer love story, A Saltwater Requiem is an ambitious, multi-perspective novel that takes a piece of popular history and makes it new again, centering a non-white story of immigration aboard the "unsinkable" ship.