The Wrong End of the Telescope by Rabih Alameddine

“His books offer a compelling, often jarring, blend of cynicism and hope. What else is there?”- San Francisco Chronicle “Provocative… Alameddine makes an argument for writing even when writing fails.

“Spectacular… Alameddine’s irreverent prose evokes the old master storytellers from my own Middle Eastern home, their observations toothy and full of wit, returning always to human absurdity.”- New York Times Book Review Winner of the 2022 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fictionįinalist for the 2023 Joyce Carol Oates Prize Praise for The Wrong End of the Telescope: Cunningly weaving in stories of other refugees into Mina’s singular own, The Wrong End of the Telescope is a bedazzling tapestry of both tragic and amusing portraits of indomitable spirits facing a humanitarian crisis. Not since the inimitable Aaliya of An Unnecessary Woman has Rabih Alameddine conjured such a winsome heroine to lead us to one of the most wrenching conflicts of our time. Bonded together by Sumaiya’s secret, a deep connection sparks between the two women, and as Mina prepares a course of treatment with the limited resources on hand, she confronts the circumstances of the migrants’ displacement, as well as her own constraints in helping them. Determined to protect her children and husband at all costs, Sumaiya refuses to alert her family to her diagnosis. Soon, a boat crosses bringing Sumaiya, a fiercely resolute Syrian matriarch with terminal liver cancer. But with a week off work and apart from her wife of thirty years, Mina hopes to accomplish something meaningful, among the abundance of Western volunteers who pose for selfies with beached dinghies and the camp’s children. Alienated from her family except for her beloved brother, Mina has avoided being so close to her homeland for decades. Mina Simpson, a Lebanese doctor, arrives at the infamous Moria refugee camp on Lesbos, Greece, after being urgently summoned for help by her friend who runs an NGO there. WINNER OF THE 2022 PEN/FAULKNER AWARD FOR FICTION

The Wrong End of the Telescope by Rabih Alameddine