The two begin a songwriting partnership that grows into something more once Sydney dumps Hunter and decides to crash with Ridge and his two roommates while she gets back on her feet. While music student Sydney is watching her neighbor Ridge play guitar on his balcony across the courtyard, Ridge is watching Sydney’s boyfriend, Hunter, secretly make out with her best friend on her balcony.
Hoover is a master at writing scenes from dual perspectives. Sydney and Ridge make beautiful music together in a love triangle written by Hoover ( Losing Hope, 2013, etc.), with a link to a digital soundtrack by American Idol contestant Griffin Peterson. In a note accompanying an advance copy of her book, Rum acknowledges that writing her intergenerational saga meant "violating code of silence” and might even bring “shame to community.” Nonetheless, in telling this compelling tale, Rum-who was born in Brooklyn to Palestinian immigrants herself-writes that she hopes readers will be moved “by the strength and power of our women.”Ī richly detailed and emotionally charged debut.
More importantly, the disclosure gives Deya the tools she needs to take charge of her life rather than allowing Fareeda and Khaled to marry her off. When she does, an estranged family member reveals some jarring truths about the family’s history.
Now, a decade after Isra’s and Adam’s deaths, their oldest child, Deya, age 18, receives a mysterious message from an unidentified source, asking her to travel to a Manhattan bookshop. The situation shifts dramatically, however, after Isra and Adam are killed in an accident, leaving their children to be raised by the Ra’ads. Conditions further worsened after Isra gave birth to four daughters in little more than five years-her lack of sons being evidence, Fareeda claims, of Isra’s deficiency.
Almost immediately tensions erupted, and the newly arrived immigrant found herself on the receiving end of near-daily beatings and verbal abuse. Unable to complete school in Palestine, where she grew up, Isra was married off by her parents to American deli owner Adam Ra’ad and sent to Brooklyn, New York, where she was forced to live in the crowded Bay Ridge home of her in-laws, Fareeda and Khaled, and their three other children. Isra Hadid, the heroine of Rum's debut novel, has been reminded of this every day of her life. In his last sermon, the Prophet Muhammad said, "Observe your duty to Allah in respect to the women, and treat them well," but in many Muslim countries, tradition relegates women to subservient roles.
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