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Memoir / Arab-American Studies / Literature



Children of the Roojme
A Family's Journey from Lebanon
Elmaz Abinader


"Movingly brings to life three generations of [a] Lebanese-American family."
—Library Journal

In this lyrical memoir of her Lebanese-American family, Elmaz Abinader offers a vivid account of uprooted and resettled lives.

Spanning four generations and two continents, Children of the Roojme is the story of a family from the mountains of Lebanon and their emigration to western Pennsylvania. More than that, it bears intimate witness to the hardships of World War I, the disintegrating Ottoman empire, abandonment of centuries-old villages, and the New World conflict between cultural tradition and assimilation.

"More than a chronicle of immigration, Children of the Roojme also dramatizes the plight of those left behind in Lebanon as they endure famine, war, plagues of locusts, epidemics and family rivalries."—Joseph Geha, New York Times Book Review

Elmaz Abinader, a first-generation Arab-American, writes prose and poetry and performs stories of Arab women's lives. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, including Grape Leaves: A Century of Arab American Poetry. She teaches at Mills College and lives in Oakland, California.

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Fall 1997
LC: 91-026346 E
304 pp.   5.5 x 8.5  
1 map, 19 illus.

Book icon Paper $14.95 t
ISBN 978-0-299-15734-0
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"Written by a gifted author who knows how to make readers care greatly about the people she describes."
—San Francisco Examiner

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