A delicate subject sensitively explored.
Khashoggi (Mirage, 1996) spins another page-turning tale with a topical theme: an Arab father kidnaps his American children because he disapproves of the American way of life.
Life seems pretty good for Dina Ahmad, who lives in a splendid New York brownstone with husband Karim, their son Jordy, eight-year-old twins Ali and Suzanne, and their housekeeper, Jordanian Fatma. Dina also owns a high-profile flower-design business, called Mosaic, and she and Karim, a Jordanian native, have been married for nearly 20 mostly happy years. Recently, though, there’ve been some rocky moments: since 9/11, Karim has worried about American attitudes toward Arabs. Even more troubling is his attitude toward the teenaged Jordy. They’ve learned that Jordy is gay, and Karim, who can’t deal with the revelation, holds both Dina and America responsible. Jordy has been sent away to boarding school, and Karim refuses to have any contact with him. One spring day, Dina comes home to find the house empty, and soon she learns that Karim has taken the twins to his family in Jordan. Appalled, Dina calls her two best friends for help: African-American cable show star Emmeline and Jewish doctor Sarah Gelman. Both women, though currently single, have children of their own, empathize with Dina’s plight, and soon are helping her find a way to get them back. But it won’t be easy. The State Department can’t help, and Dina has next to rely on specially trained but pricey independent operatives. Heading to Jordan herself, she learns that the situation is even more complex than she realized: Karim’s family not only have powerful connections but their house is guarded and Karim is adamant about keeping the twins. When Dina and her ops plan a kidnapping of their own, the scheme goes badly awry.
A delicate subject sensitively explored.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-765-31235-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2004
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace.
When tragedy strikes, a mother and daughter forge a new life.
Morgan felt obligated to marry her high school sweetheart, Chris, when she got pregnant with their daughter, Clara. But she secretly got along much better with Chris’ thoughtful best friend, Jonah, who was dating her sister, Jenny. Now her life as a stay-at-home parent has left her feeling empty but not ungrateful for what she has. Jonah and Jenny eventually broke up, but years later they had a one-night stand and Jenny got pregnant with their son, Elijah. Now Jonah is back in town, engaged to Jenny, and working at the local high school as Clara’s teacher. Clara dreams of being an actress and has a crush on Miller, who plans to go to film school, but her father doesn't approve. It doesn’t help that Miller already has a jealous girlfriend who stalks him via text from college. But Clara and Morgan’s home life changes radically when Chris and Jenny are killed in an accident, revealing long-buried secrets and forcing Morgan to reevaluate the life she chose when early motherhood forced her hand. Feeling betrayed by the adults in her life, Clara marches forward, acting both responsible and rebellious as she navigates her teenage years without her father and her aunt, while Jonah and Morgan's relationship evolves in the wake of the accident. Front-loaded with drama, the story leaves plenty of room for the mother and daughter to unpack their feelings and decide what’s next.
The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace.Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5420-1642-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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