"Somewhere, Home" by Nada Awar Jarrar. [review - radio script]

Abstract

"Somewhere, Home" is another ambitious first novel. The author, Nada Awar Jarrar, is a Lebanese woman who has spent much of her life away from war-torn Lebanon, in Australia and elsewhere. This kind of exile from home and family is a persistent theme in the book. The novel is in three parts, each dealing with a completely different set of characters. The unifying thread is intended to be provided by a house in a village in the hills above Beirut, which provides an unattainable symbol of home to characters in each of the stories.