Somewhere, Home by Nada Awar Jarrar

A stunningly beautiful and moving novel of the modern Lebanon, of women's lives in the shadow of war and exile, comparable to Rachel Seiffert's 'The Dark Room' in its quietly powerful examination of ordinary lives in extraordinary times.

'Somewhere Home' tells the stories of three women, each of them far from home who are returning to, or still searching, for somewhere that can be called 'home'. Each of them is Lebanese and drawn back to a beautiful house in a village that represents home, as it was, or as it could be.

Maysa returns to the house that was her grandparents when she was a child, in a village high on the slopes of Mount Lebanon, leaving Beirut to search for her past and to imagine the past lives of her family. Aida, who has long since left the country of her birth, returns to Lebanon in search of the spirit of the Palestinian refugee who was a second father to her when she was a child. Salwa, now an old woman, taken from her homeland when she was a young wife and mother, recalls her life from her hospital bed, surrounded by her family but still, in some sense, far from home.

Review:
A memorable journey through the Lebanese mountain village, detailing the lives of women in rural Lebanon. Jarrar captures the very essence of Beirut and Mount Lebanon.