Two Palestinian teenagers discover secrets that change all they thought they knew about their family histories, and their own futures.
Farida is a talented young painter who recreates European masterpieces under the patronizing eye of a Parisian art dealer. Mazen just arrived in France to hunt for a lost family heirloom. When the two meet during a chance encounter at the Louvre, they discover that both their grandmothers fled Palestine during the Nakba in 1948. Drawn to one another, Mazen and Farida begin to piece together their past, but a shadowy ring of art forgers has different plans for Farida. Will she discover the truth before it's too late?
Exploring what it means to live in diaspora, Hooda Shawa's US debut moves from Paris to Haifa, from Aleppo to Tangier, conjuring the jewel tones of the Mediterranean and the bittersweet taste of memory.
Autorentext
Hooda Shawa is Palestinian British author of children's and young adult literature. She received the Sheikh Zayed Book Award for Children's Literature in 2008 for The Birds' Journey to Mount Qaf, the Kuwait Children's Literature Award in 2017 for The Elephant's Journey, and the Arab Children's Book Publishers Forum award in 2023 for The Puppeteer. Her recent work includes the graphic novel Banat 'Ad (co-written with Laila Qaddumi and illustrated by Ashraf Ghori), the graphic novel Gilgamesh's Skull (illustrated by Michael Jabareen), and The Donkey who Carried the War on her Back, which was selected for 2025 White Ravens List. Hooda is the founder of TAQA Productions, a production company that produces theater and puppet shows in Kuwait, where she lives.