Book description
WINNER OF THE PEN/FAULKNER AWARD FOR FICTION 2022
'A beautiful, well paced, enraging, funny and heartbreaking book' the Guardian
'Spectacular . . . Alameddine's irreverent prose evokes the old master storytellers from my own Middle Eastern home . . . deeply poignant' New York Times
Mina Simpson, a Lebanese doctor,…
Why read it?
1 author picked The Wrong End of the Telescope as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Basically, it’s a story about Syrian refugees who have made it to the Greek island of Lesbos.
I’ve been going to the same island – and indeed, village – for the last 20 years, and in 2015-2017 I personally worked extensively with the refugees. Alameddine’s portrayal of the place, people, and situation is perfect. It’s the first novel I read with a trans protagonist, in this case a female Lebanese doctor who comes for a week to help the refugees.
Structurally, the book is unique. Through short chapters (sometimes only a couple of pages long so they are more like…
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