The Syrian Ladies Benevolent Society
Stories
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
With imaginative aplomb and abiding passion, The Syrian Ladies Benevolent Society masterfully traces the deep roots of the Arab immigrant experience. These unforgettable interlocking stories follow an Arab family as they flee the Middle East in the nineteenth century, settle in Montreal in the twentieth, and face the collision between tradition and modernity in the twenty-first. This family includes trailblazing Lebanese freedom fighters, undercover operatives in World War II, and brave Syrian refugees trying to find their place in Canadian society.
The line of daring women culminates in Azurée, a young Arab woman living in the echoes of her ancestors' voices.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
A free-spirited Arab woman living in Canada struggles with relationships, identity, and her family’s troubled legacy in this fascinating short-story collection. Each of Christine Estima’s 13 tales stands on its own, though they all orbit around Azurée, a bold young 21st-century woman with an appetite for men and adventure—and a complicated connection to her home country of Syria, which her family fled back in 1860. Touching on everything from World War II espionage to the experiences of growing up in ’90s Toronto, Estima’s book paints a colourful portrait of her protagonists’ surroundings, with stories that overflow with local colour, sensual detail, and the painful push and pull between past and present. The Syrian Ladies Benevolent Society is a brisk and exciting debut from a writer we can’t wait to hear from again.