Available for Pre-Order This item will be available on June 5, 2012.
Overview
As Beirut exploded with the bombs and violence of a ruthless civil war in the ’80s, a nine-year-old Salma Abdelnour and her family fled Lebanon to start a new life in the States. Ever since then— even as she built a thriving career as a food and travel writer in New York City—Salma has had a hunch that Beirut was still her home. She kept dreaming of moving back—and finally decided to do it.
But could she resume her life in Beirut, so many years after her family moved away? Could she, or anyone for that matter, ever really go home again?
As Beirut exploded with the bombs and violence of a ruthless civil war in the ’80s, a nine-year-old Salma Abdelnour and her family fled Lebanon to start a new life in the States. Ever since then— even as she built a thriving career as a food and travel writer in New York City—Salma has had a hunch that Beirut was still her home. She kept dreaming of moving back—and finally decided to do it.
But could she resume her life in Beirut, so many years after her family moved away? Could she, or anyone for that matter, ever really go home again?
Jasmine and Fire is Salma’s poignant and humorous journey of try-ing to resettle in Beirut and fumbling through the new realities of life in one of the world’s most complex, legendary, ever-vibrant, ever- troubled cities. What’s more, in a year of roiling changes around the Middle East and the rise of the Arab Spring, Salma found herself in the midst of the turmoil, experiencing it all up close.
As she comes to grips with all the changes in her life—a love left behind in New York and new relationships blossoming in Beirut—Salma takes comfort in some of Lebanon’s enduring traditions, particularly its extraordinary food culture. Through the sights, sounds, and flavors of a city full of beauty, tragedy, despair, and hope, Salma slowly begins to reconnect with the place she’s longed for her entire life.
Freelance writer Abdelnour channels her addiction to “food pilgrimages” into this piquant mix of memoir, travelogue and culinary adventure. In 1981, at the height of the Lebanese civil war, Abdelnour’s parents moved the family to Houston. Although born in the U.S., Abdelnour spent most of her first nine years in Beirut. In Houston and, later, at the University of California at Berkeley, she nursed an idealized image of Beirut, colored by her family’s summer vacations to the city, as a place where she would no longer feel like a misfit and battle self-doubt. Then, in summer 2010, Abdelnour, now living in New York City, put a budding romance on hold to live for a year in the home her family had maintained in Beirut. Comparing and contrasting the sophisticated social scenes and bustling commerce in New York and Beirut, Abdelnour records the months spent there, frequently detouring into existential ponderings on the qualities that make a place feel comfortable. As she puts down roots and rediscovers her favorite traditional, Abdelnour analyzes Lebanon’s ongoing political instability, the constant threat of war in the Middle East—her stay coincided with political upheavals throughout the area—the potential revival of the Arabic language, and jarring Western-style displays of wealth and gaiety masking religious tensions and escalating unemployment. In the end, she has written a multilayered portrait of a complex, chaotic, and contradictory city. Agent: Jason Allen Ashlock. (June)
Kirkus Reviews
A food-focused travel memoir through the streets of Beirut. Although she fled Beirut as a child during the Lebanese civil war, food writer Abdelnour never forgot the city or the sense of longing she felt to return. Disgruntled by her inability to feel at home in America despite 30 years in the country, the author left her friends, career and love interest in New York City to spend a year in her parents' Beirut apartment. She was determined to reconnect with her roots. Relatives and old friends who remained in the country during the war eased the transition from one city to the other. By taking daily walks through her old neighborhood, the author slowly felt the essence of Beirut sinking into her pores. Detailed street descriptions allow readers to meander with the author as she widens her berth, exploring new sections of the war-ravaged city. Abdelnour places special emphasis on the Lebanese food she ate on her walks or was served at one of the many family gatherings she attended. An expanding social circle of new friends and the ability to write about Lebanon helped her accept her background while maintaining her American identity. Despite the political unrest of the region, Abdelnour found peace in her new surroundings. Having embraced her Lebanese culture fully, the author realized she carried the sense of home inside her and ultimately returned to New York to live, at least for most of the year. Though the book includes recipes, a street map would have been a useful addition. Recommended for readers of food memoirs and those interested in Lebanon.
Product Details
ISBN-13: 9780307885951
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Publication date: 6/5/2012
Sold by: Random House
Format: eBook
Pages: 336
Sales rank: 664,517
File size: 2 MB
Meet the Author
Salma Abdelnour is a writer and editor based in New York City. She has been the travel editor of Food & Wine, the food editor of O, The Oprah Magazine, and the restaurant editor of Time Out New York.
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Overview
As Beirut exploded with the bombs and violence of a ruthless civil war in the ’80s, a nine-year-old Salma Abdelnour and her family fled Lebanon to start a new life in the States. Ever since then— even as she built a thriving career as a food and travel writer in New York City—Salma has had a hunch that Beirut was still her home. She kept dreaming of moving back—and finally decided to do it.But could she resume her life in Beirut, so many years after her family moved away? Could she, or anyone for that matter, ever really go home again?
Jasmine and Fire is Salma’s poignant and...