The 13 superb stories in Christine Estima's debut could easily stand alone; reading them together turns the collection novel-esque, revealing how diasporic generations eventually culminated in the life and experiences of contemporary Arab Canadian Azurée Ghiz.
In 1860, Azurée's great-great-great grandmother Holwé flees Lebanon with her daughter, Hana, to escape religious persecution. By the second story, the journey's success is well established, centering the family of Hana's son Shafeek and his wife, Alzira, settled by the 1930s among the "community of Arabs populating Montreal's Little Italy." Alzira's husband takes the spotlight, he who most enjoys dressing in women's clothing. Their son Ali dies prematurely, but he leaves behind a daughter, Fadwa, who becomes a reckless World War II spy behind enemy lines. Ali's sister marries a quiet man; their daughter Naseema's romantic relationships fail, but not before she has her own two daughters. The elder is Azurée, born of an overnight affair with a Syrian stranger Naseema meets on an Italian train. Azurée's troubled coming-of-age and her complicated relationships with family and lovers become the focus of the collection's majority.
Estima, a Canadian of Lebanese, Syrian, and Portuguese ancestry, writes intimately of "the gaggle of non-benevolent benevolent ladies," "obscene tragedy," and sex that is "easier to clean up than war." Her humor, too, is appreciatively irreverent, with lines like "if heaven is full of louts... then hand me the sunscreen for hell." In writing across cultures, borders, and centuries, Estima credits her ancestors with direct inspiration: "I hear your voices in my veins; you will not be forgotten." Neither will Estima's enthralling writing. --Terry Hong