Guapa: A Novel - Softcover

Haddad, Saleem

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1590517695 ISBN 13: 9781590517697

Publisher: Other Press, 2016

Synopsis

A debut novel that tells the story of Rasa, a young gay man coming of age in the Middle East
 
Set over the course of twenty-four hours, Guapa follows Rasa, a gay man living in an unnamed Arab country, as he tries to carve out a life for himself in the midst of political and social upheaval. Rasa spends his days translating for Western journalists and pining for the nights when he can sneak his lover, Taymour, into his room. One night Rasa's grandmother — the woman who raised him — catches them in bed together. The following day Rasa is consumed by the search for his best friend Maj, a fiery activist and drag queen star of the underground bar, Guapa, who has been arrested by the police. Ashamed to go home and face his grandmother, and reeling from the potential loss of the three most important people in his life, Rasa roams the city’s slums and prisons, the lavish weddings of the country’s elite, and the bars where outcasts and intellectuals drink to a long-lost revolution. Each new encounter leads him closer to confronting his own identity, as he revisits his childhood and probes the secrets that haunt his family. As Rasa confronts the simultaneous collapse of political hope and his closest personal relationships, he is forced to discover the roots of his alienation and try to re-emerge into a society that may never accept him.

About this title

Review:

An Amazon Best Book of March 2016: This debut novel takes readers on a journey across countries and cultures to demonstrate the impact of the definitions we place on ourselves and those around us. Over the course of 24 hours Rasa, a young gay Middle Eastern man—who has just been outted by his grandmother--struggles with the potential loss of everything that matters to him. Humorous, powerful and deeply endearing, Guapa is one of those stories that surprises and stays with you. --Penny Mann

About the Author:

Saleem Haddad was born in Kuwait City in 1983 to a Lebanese-Palestinian father and an Iraqi-German mother, and educated in Jordan, Canada, and the United Kingdom. He has worked as an aid worker with Doctors Without Borders in Yemen, Syria, and Iraq, and currently lives in London, where he advises on inclusion of refugees, women, and young people in the transition and peace processes of the Arab Spring.

About this edition

• Publisher: Other Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1590517695
• ISBN 13: 9781590517697
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368