Some essays retell events we’ve already read as if for the first time some end with disorienting abruptness. 'Jarrar is a propulsive writer and the pieces amassed here are chaotic and exuberant, defiant and introspective. Praise For This Book An O, The Oprah Magazine LGBTQ Book That Will Change the Literary Landscape Next YearĪ Literary Hub Most Anticipated Book of the Year Hailed as “one of the finest writers of her generation” (Laila Lalami), Jarrar delivers a euphoric and critical, funny and profound memoir that will speak to anyone who has felt erased, asserting: I am here. On the way, she schools a rest-stop racist, destroys Confederate flags in the desert, and visits the Chicago neighborhood where her immigrant parents first lived.

Reclaiming her autonomy after a life of survival–domestic assault as a child, and later, as a wife threats and doxxing after her viral tweet about Barbara Bush–Jarrar offers a bold look at domestic violence, single motherhood, and sexuality through the lens of the punished-yet-triumphant body. As an American raised for a time in Egypt, and finding herself captivated by the story of a celebrated Egyptian belly dancer’s journey across the United States in the 1940s, she sets off from her home in California to her parents’ in Connecticut.Ĭoloring this road trip are journeys abroad and recollections of a life lived with daring. Randa Jarrar is a fearless voice of dissent who has been called “politically incorrect” (Michelle Goldberg, The New York Times).

In this “exuberant, defiant and introspective” memoir of a cross-country road trip, she explores how to claim joy in an unraveling and hostile America ( The New York Times Book Review).

A map of home by randa jarrar