Talk Till The Minutes Run Out: An Immigrant's Tale at 7-Eleven

Aging and homesick, Nur Ali is living in America, seeking asylum. Though exiled from his Swat, Pakistan, homeland and inaccurately labeled as a Taliban sympathizer by the US government, he’s determined to keep his position as family patriarch. So Nur Ali leads and provides for his beloved family clan in Pakistan from half a world away. Using prepaid phone cards and a landline in the inner-city 7-Eleven where he works as night shift manager, Nur Ali manages food, gifts, marriages, births, and deaths, all the events that glue a family together. Culturally accurate, this work of fiction is a page-turning journey that will give you new insight into the lives of immigrants who come to America seeking a better life while still clinging to the culture and traditions of their homeland. Post 9-11 America is not the melting pot many thought it could be. This is the daily reality Nur Ali and his friends live. They are exiled from home and living in yet another hostile country. These immigrants find themselves homeless both at home and abroad. This suspenseful struggle of Nur Ali, his family in Pakistan, and his friends in America, will both entertain and inform you.

Benedicte Grima grew up internationally. She studied four Middle Eastern languages, became proficient in Farsi and Pashto, and conducted over 20 years of fieldwork throughout Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan – some as a Fulbright scholar - as well as among refugees and exiles from there in the US as a language and culture interpreter. She has authored her research in The Performance of Emotion Among Paxtun Women (1992), and Secrets From the Field (2004). This historical and ethnographic novel is created from her in-depth knowledge of and personal experience with people from Swat, Pakistan.