Abu Dhabi Reads: The American Granddaughter

Fifteen years after emigrating from Baghdad to America, Zeina returns to her war-torn homeland as an interpreter for the US Army and finds herself tormented by conflicting allegiances. Her traditional grandmother, the only family member Zeina believes she has in Iraq, disapproves of her granddaughter’s involvement with the occupying forces. Whilst in Baghdad, Zeina meets two "brothers" she knows nothing of. When she falls deeply in love with one of them, a militant in the Mahdi Army, she herself begins to question her values. The American Granddaughter eloquently reveals an Iraqi American’s painful inner struggle against a backdrop of the pointless atrocities of war.

Abu Dhabi Reads celebrates the power of reading by bringing together people who have read the same book to share ideas and questions. This series is in collaboration with Electra Street, a journal of the arts & humanities published at NYUAD. For more information, please visit electrastreet.net.

Simultaneous Arabic translation will be provided