Fabulous Fiction Firsts #650, The Innocents Abroad

Fri, 08/18/2017 - 8:47pm by muffy

Ian Bassingthwaighte (UM, MFA, Helen Zell Writers' Program) won the Hopwood Novel Award in 2015 for Live from Cairo * *. This debut novel, set during the turbulent days after the January 25, 2011 uprising in Egypt, commonly referred to as The Arab Spring, is supported by Fulbright Program grant.

Cairo, 2011. President Mubarak is ousted from power, but for many people, Cairo is still a volatile, dangerous place. Dalia, an Iraqi refugee finds herself trapped in Egypt when her petition to join her husband Omran in the U.S. is denied. Hana, an Iraqi-American working at the U.N. Refugee Resettlement Office is assigned her case, and is desperate to help her. Neither one is aware that Dalia's impulsive American attorney Charlie, is in love with his client, and is about to forge a not entirely legal plan to get her out. Meanwhile, Aos, Charlie’s translator and only friend, spends his days trying to help people through the system and his nights in Tahrir Square protesting against it. As these well-meaning but ill-equipped individuals come together to help Dalia, laws are broken, friendships and marriages are tested, and lives are risked.

"The author paints a deep and empathetic picture of the inner struggles of his courageous, flawed characters, who in the midst of mortal danger and insurmountable odds, grapple with the most fundamental questions of right and wrong. The answers follow neither rules nor laws, making the climax to this novel breathtaking and heartrending." (Publishers Weekly)

Siobhan Fallon follows up her prizewinning short story collection with a debut novel - The Confusion of Languages *. While her stories focused on military spouses stateside, this novel is from the perspective of two wives of U.S. Embassy staff in Jordan as the Arab Spring unfolds.

After two years in Amman, Cassie Hugo considers herself a worthy mentor to Margaret Brickshaw, a new arrival to the Middle East. But the sight of Margaret sends Cassie into a fit of jealousy, especially her toddler Mather, having tried for years to start a family. Desperate for a friend among the expat families, Cassie shows Margaret around town, and tries to impart upon her the wisdom and safeguards of embassy rules. However, Margaret yearns for adventure, to learn Arabic, and to connect with the locals. With their husbands deployed, Cassie is asked to mind Mather while Margaret insists on venturing out alone to settle a fender-bender incident. When Margaret fails to return, Cassie panics and looks through Margaret's journal for clues. What she finds among her friend's many secrets is her own possible role in Margaret's disappearance.

"For all that these women appear designed for a morality play, they are honest and well-formed characters, and Fallon strenuously avoids pat answers to the central question of how a woman should behave in a foreign land."(Kirkus Reviews)

* * = 2 starred reviews

* = starred review