Ghady & Rawan

by Fatima Sharafeddine, Samar Mahfouz Barraj, Sawad Hussain (Translator), M. Lynx Qualey (Translator)

Overview

Ghady and Rawan is a heartfelt and timely novel by the award-winning author Fatima Sharafeddine (The Servant, Cappuccino) and Samar Mahfouz Barraj. The novel follows the close-knit friendship of two Lebanese teenagers, Ghady, who lives with his family in Belgium, and Rawan, who lives in Lebanon. Ghady’s family travels every summer to Beirut, where Ghady gets to spend all his time with Rawan and their other friends, enjoying their freedom from school. During the rest of the year, he and Rawan keep in touch by email. Through this correspondence, we learn about the daily ups and downs of their lives in Brussels and Beirut, including Ghady’s homesickness and his struggles with racism at school, as well as Rawan’s changing relationship to her family. The novel offers a glimpse into the lives of Lebanese adolescents while exploring a range of topics relevant to young people everywhere: bullying, parental conflicts, racism, belonging and identity, and peer pressure. Through the connection between the two main characters, Sharafeddine and Mahfouz Barraj show how the love and support of a good friend can help you through difficulties as well as sweeten life’s triumphs and good times.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781477318522
Publisher:	Ctr for Middle Eastern Studies UT-Austin
Publication date:	08/01/2019
Series:	Emerging Voices from the Middle East
Pages:	134
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Fatima Sharafeddine is a writer, translator, and editor of children’s and young adult literature living in Beirut and Brussels. She has written and published over 120 books, many of which have been translated into various languages.

Samar Mahfouz Barraj is a prominent and award-winning Lebanese writer of children’s and young adult literature in Arabic who has published sixty-one books.

Table of Contents

• Goodbye, Summer
• The Empty Balcony
• Brussels
• Getting ready
• Encounters
• Time Machine
• No Title
• The First Day
• Ghadghud
• Blurred Days
• Thomas
• A Difficult Day
• Disillusioned
• Strange Feelings
• School Bullies
• Campaign Prep
• Behind the Gym
• Strange Situation
• Madness
• The Phone Call
• Unpleasant Surprise
• Confusion and Worry
• What Now?
• Nothing Matters
• Worst-case Scenario
• Pink Shoes
• To Seville
• Escape
• Even Matthias?
• Chocolate
• The Fight: 1
• Again, the Mirror
• The Fight: 2
• The Secret of Change
• Ghady’s Decision
• A New Day
• Unsafe at School
• Mountain Home
• In the House
• Special Drawings
• Hero
• Secret Admirer
• A Gift

What People are Saying About This

Zeyna Al-Jabri

Contemporary, down to earth, enjoyable! Written for today's teenagers. Recommended as school reading, it cuts across a variety of topics that should be discussed openly in classrooms.

Michelle Hartman

Few works of fiction for young people written in Arabic are available in English; Ghady & Rawan offers us a glimpse into young people growing up between Belgium and Lebanon. A touching, funny, and all too real story, this short novel should be read by young adults and not-so-young adults alike. The sensitive translation by Hussain and Lynx Qualey conveys the highs and lows of adolescence in a language accessible to a wide range of readers.

Editorial Reviews

Ghady & Rawan explores the daily conflicts of adolescents in mature yet refreshing letters between the two characters. The perspective shifts every chapter, giving readers a very personal glimpse while showing just how different each character's experiences are. Through it all, Sharafeddine and Barraj do not depict life in one city as better than the other; rather, the novel focuses on human struggles that unite them both: fear, loss, and change.

Al Jadid

"A heartfelt and beautifully written page-turner." --Kirkus, starred review

From the Publisher

★ 2019-05-26
After a summer break spent in Beirut, Ghady, a Lebanese teenager, returns with his family to Brussels, Belgium, where they reside.

Left behind is Rawan, his female best friend, with whom he keeps in touch through email. Through their correspondence, readers find out about their dreams and ambitions but also, and most importantly, their teenage angst and worries: Rawan's increasingly uneasy relationship with her parents and Ghady's bouts with homesickness and racial stereotyping. Their stories—while told through the perspectives of two Lebanese characters—skillfully examine issues pertinent to adolescents everywhere: bullying, peer pressure, racial discrimination, conflicts with parents, substance abuse….The young peoples' narratives and communications uncover each of their perceptions of the other's world, with Rawan envious of the fast internet and 24/7 electricity Ghady enjoys in "well-organized" Brussels while Ghady longs for the extended family life of Lebanese culture and writes to Rawan that "the noise of the Beirut streets…is better than the silence here." Originally written in Arabic, the novel is masterfully penned by celebrated, award-winning authors Sharafeddine (The Amazing Discoveries of Ibn Sina, 2015, etc.) and Barraj (Red Line, 2019, etc.). The dual authorship results in a seamless text, and readers will travel smoothly between the novel's two loci, Beirut and Brussels.

A heartfelt and beautifully written page-turner. (Fiction. 12-14)

Kirkus Reviews