“Poignant . . . deeply personal . . . an indelible history of the largely forgotten Jews of Egypt . . . ”

--Miami Herald

In vivid and graceful prose, Lucette Lagnado re-creates the majesty and cosmopolitan glamour of Cairo in the years before Gamal Abdel Nasser's rise to power. With Nasser's nationalization of Egyptian industry, her father, Leon, a boulevardier who conducted business in his white sharkskin suit, loses everything, and departs with the family for any land that will take them. The poverty and hardships they encounter in their flight from Cairo to Paris to New York are strikingly juxtaposed against the beauty and comforts of the lives they left behind.

An inversion of the American dream set against the stunning portraits of three world cities, Lucette Lagnado's memoir offers a grand and sweeping story of faith, tradition, tragedy, and triumph.

--Oscar Hijuelos, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of THE MAMBO KINGS PLAY SONGS OF LOVE

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Ecco Press
Published: 07/01/2008
ISBN: 9780060822187
Pages: 340
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 7.37h x 6.09w x 0.88d

Review Citations: New York Times Book Review 08/03/2008 pg. 20