Arabian Jazz

This oracular first novel which unfurls like gossamer [has] characters of a depth seldom found in a debut. The New YorkerIn Diana Abu-Jaber''s impressive entertaining (Chicago Tribune) first novel a small poor-white community in upstate New York becomes home to the transplanted Jordanian family of Matussem Ramoud: his grown daughters Jemorah and Melvina; his sister Fatima; and her husband Zaeed. The widower Matuseem loves American jazz kitschy lawn ornaments and of course his daughters. Fatima is obsessed with seeing her nieces marriedJemorah is nearly thirty! Supernurse Melvina is firmly committed to her work but Jemorah is ambivalent about her identity and role. Is she Arab? Is she American? Should she marry and if so whom?Winner of the Oregon Book Award and finalist for the National PEN/Hemingway Award Arabian Jazz is a joy to readYou will be tempted to read passages out loud. And you should (Boston Globe). USA Today praises Abu-Jaber''s gift for dialogue...her Arab-American rings musically and hilariously true.