Another fine first novel, set in Lebanon and Atlantic Canada: a subtle study of ""the problem of belonging,"" as experienced by Lebanese emigrants who have prospered in and assimilated to Prince Edward Island and, notably, by their elderly parents, simple villagers Radwan Abu and Um Nabeel. The latter visit their children's families just as their country is plunged into civil war (in 1975), and Radwan finds that it's both too dangerous to return home and too painful to adapt to a culture in which he and his grandchildren speak different languages. Nasrallah's sympathetic portrayal of Radwan--a beguiling combination of naive peasant and principled patriarch--is the triumphant core of a very moving and all too universal story, simply and movingly told.