Cairo in White

By Kelly Ann Jacobson

2014

First Published

3.56

Average Rating

182

Number of Pages

5H33M

Audio Length

Closeted Egyptian teen Zahra finds herself in an arranged marriage to her girlfriend's brother. As Cairo swelters in the summer of 1986, spunky Egyptian teen Zahra pins on her hijab and faces the heat like a warrior, prepared to risk everything for a secret rendezvous with her lover. But after climbing the Ahmeds’ wall and sneaking into their household, Zahra's parents catch her and force her to choose between telling them the truth about her relationship with the Ahmeds’ daughter or marrying the son they think she's been sneaking there to see. Years later, Zahra's American daughter, Aisha, steps off a plane at Cairo International Airport and greets her grandparents for the first time. Who is this tall girl wearing black clothes, piercings, and a pixie cut, they wonder, and what secrets does she hold? Zahra and Aisha’s lives unfold together as they both grapple with their religious beliefs, social pressures, love, and the search for a place to call home amidst the feminist movement and the Arab Spring.

Avg Rating

3.56

Number of Ratings

5 STARS

29%

4 STARS

18%

3 STARS

35%

2 STARS

15%

1 STARS

goodreads

Author

Kelly Ann Jacobson

Author · 6 books

Dr. Kelly Ann Jacobson is the author or editor of many published books, including her contest-winning chapbook An Inventory of Abandoned Things (Split/Lip Press), her young adult novel Tink and Wendy (Three Rooms Press), and her forthcoming young adult novel Robin and Her Misfits (Three Rooms Press). Kelly received her PhD in fiction from Florida State University and teaches as the Assistant Professor of English (Creative Writing) at the University of Lynchburg and as an Instructor of speculative fiction and short story writing for Southern New Hampshire University’s online MFA in creative writing. Kelly’s short works have been published in such places as Best Small Fictions, Boulevard, Southern Humanities Review, Daily Science Fiction, Northern Virginia Review, Iron Horse Literary Review, New Plains Review, and Gargoyle.