Love is an Ex-Country

by Randa Jarrar

Randa Jarrar, an American raised for a time in Egypt, finds herself captivated by the story of a celebrated Egyptian belly dancer’s journey across the United States in the 1940s, and sets off from her home in California to her parents’ in Connecticut.

Coloring this road trip are journeys abroad and recollections of a life lived with daring. 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. 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.

INCLUSION CRITERIA

Author Randa Jarrar identifies as bisexual.