Behind You Is the Sea
A Novel
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4.5 • 21 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2025 PEN/FAULKNER AWARD
"A beautiful portrait of a family reaching for their dreams while holding on to their roots."—Publishers Weekly
"Each chapter reads like a small masterpiece."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
An exciting debut novel that gives voice to the diverse residents of a Palestinian American community in Baltimore—from young activists in conflict with their traditional parents to the poor who clean for the rich—lives which intersect across divides of class, generation, and religion.
Funny and touching, Behind You Is the Sea brings us into the homes and lives of three main families—the Baladis, the Salamehs, and the Ammars—Palestinian immigrants who’ve all found a different welcome in America.
Their various fates and struggles cause their community dynamic to sizzle and sometimes explode: The wealthy Ammar family employs young Maysoon Baladi, whose own family struggles financially, to clean up after their spoiled teenagers. Meanwhile, Marcus Salameh confronts his father in an effort to protect his younger sister for “dishonoring” their name. Only a trip to Palestine, where Marcus experiences an unexpected and dramatic transformation, can bridge this seemingly unbridgeable divide between the two generations.
Behind You Is the Sea faces stereotypes about Palestinian culture head-on and, shifting perspectives to weave a complex social fabric replete with weddings, funerals, broken hearts, and devastating secrets.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Susan Muaddi Darraj’s powerful, timely novel explores immigration, class, and the experiences of Palestinian American families. The Baladis, the Salamehs, and the Ammars all share the same ancestral homeland of Palestine. Although their lives diverge greatly after they immigrate to Baltimore, the families remain interconnected across generations. A rich mosaic, Behind You Is the Sea follows eight characters who struggle with the American Dream, from hardworking Reema, who’s dealing with her father’s declining health, to idealistic Marcus, who is torn between defending his sister’s personal choices and upholding the family name. Darraj tenderly explores topics like heartbreak, gender norms, and mental health as her characters grapple with isolation, long for a homeland they never knew, and hustle to survive.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This potent novel-in-stories from Muaddi Darraj (The Inheritance of Exile) follows a group of Palestinian Americans in Baltimore. In "Ride Along," Marcus Salameh, a U.S. Marine, is trying to mediate a conflict between his father and his sister, who's graduating from college with honors after coming out of a rough patch following an abortion. "Escorting the Body" finds Marcus returning to Palestine to bury his father and reflect on how his Baba's American dream had turned sour because of his inability to be more compassionate to his family. The title story looks at the power dynamics between rich and poor immigrants, as a young woman named Maysoon Baladi takes a job as a cleaner for the Ammars, a wealthy fellow Palestinian family. In "Gyroscopes," high school student Layla Marwan, a cousin of the Ammars, expresses concern about the negative representation of Arabs in her school's production of Aladdin, but is ignored by her adviser. Throughout, Muaddi Darraj brilliantly depicts complex characters reckoning with the costs of holding tightly to their principles. This is a beautiful portrait of a family reaching for their dreams while holding onto their roots.
