Melissa Mogollon holds an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a BA from the George Washington University. Originally from Colombia and raised in Florida, she now teaches at a boarding school in Rhode Island, where she lives with her partner and dog.
Oye is her first novel.
At Electric Lit Mogollon tagged eight "incredible books that I hope will inspire the chaotic, weird, unrestrained, and glorious, blossoming 1st-gen immigrant in you." One title on the list:
A Map of Home by Randa JarrarRead about another entry on the list.
When I first read A Map of Home by Randa Jarrar I probably fell out of my chair. I didn’t know fiction could do half the things thatJarrar was doing, and I didn’t think I’d ever love a protagonist more than Nidali, the book’s captivating and righteous Palestinian-Egyptian-Greek-American narrator, who migrates across time to and from Kuwait, Egypt, and the United States. Nidali is defiant and curious, questioning her circumstances while embracing the traditions and people around her. We see Nidali flee war, search for a sense of a homeland, indulge in normal teen behaviors, grapple with her place in her family, and ultimately, define who she is on her own terms. Jarrar’s sentences control humor and heartbreak in this book magnificently. A valiant and gorgeous coming-of-age novel about power, identity, and the complex dance of growing up in the global immigrant diaspora.
A Map of Home is among Laila Lalami's eight books about Muslim life for a nation that knows little about Islam and Ahmed Ali Akbar's 14 novels about Muslim life that open up worlds for their audiences.
My Book, The Movie: A Map of Home.
--Marshal Zeringue
Posts
