Too Soon by Betty Shamieh
Too Soon by Betty Shamieh
For readers of�Pachinko�and�Queenie, a funny, sexy, and heart-wrenching literary debut that explores exile, ambition, and hope across three generations of Palestinian American women. Arabella gets an unexpected chance at love when she's thrust into a conflict and history she's tried to avoid all her life. Zoya is playing matchmaker for her last unmarried granddaughter - introducing Arabella to the very eligible grandson of an old flame and stirring up buried family history. Naya is keeping a secret from her family that will change all their lives. Thirty-five-year-old Arabella, a New York theatre director whose dating and career prospects are drying up, is offered an opportunity to direct a risqu� cross-dressing interpretation of a Shakespeare classic (that might garner international attention) in the West Bank. Her grandmother, Zoya, plots to make a match between her and Aziz, a Palestinian American doctor volunteering in Gaza. Arabella agrees to meet Aziz since her growing feelings for Yoav, a celebrated Israeli American theatre designer, seem destined for disaster. Arabella and Aziz's instant connection reminds Zoya of the passion she once felt for Aziz's grandfather, a man she desired desperately, even after her father arranged another husband for her. In turn, Zoya would later marry off her youngest daughter, Naya, who aspired to date the Jackson 5 and wasn't ready to be a wife or mother to Arabella at sixteen. Now that Naya's children are grown and she's arrived at an abrupt midlife crossroads, it's time to settle old scores� With biting hilarity,�Too Soon�introduces us to a trio of bold and unforgettable voices. This dramatic saga follows one family's epic journey from fleeing war-torn Jaffa in 1948, chasing the American Dream in Detroit and San Francisco in the sixties and seventies, hustling in the New York theatre scene post-9/11, and daring to stage a show in Palestine in 2012. Upon learning one of them is living on borrowed time, three women fight to live, make art, and love on their own terms.�Too Soon�joins the stories that seek to illuminate our shared history and ask, how can we set ourselves free?