First published 2026
Sufien loses his childhood home with the blue door when he flees Palestine during the 1948 Nakba. Time stops making sense at that moment. He moves through Kuwait's oil fields, where he finds first love and leaves his family behind. In a small Italian university town, he drowns himself in wine and Western promises. New York reveals his true calling and brings him a Jewish woman from a different world entirely. Arizona's desert skies call him back at the end. His journey spans decades of friendships, a job selling leather, the company of cats, fatherhood's joys, and prophetic dreams. Yet no matter how far he travels or what happiness he finds, something dark pulls at him. The story moves backward and forward through time, starting at his end and circling back to his beginning. Sufien carries the wound of exile everywhere, but his life blazes with moments of beauty and connection.
Genres: fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: journey, nonlinear-narrative
Setting: Palestine, Kuwait, Italy, New York, Arizona
Period: 1948, Nakba
320 pages · Hardcover · Knopf
Content warnings: war