‘A Palestinian American Sex and the City.’ —The Atlantic • ‘Wonderfully brash and sparkling...This book fills in gaps in our understanding.’ —Oprah Daily • ‘Shamieh balances her characters’ painful family history and their boisterously funny voices.’ —New Yorker
A funny, sexy, and heart-wrenching literary debut that explores exile, ambition, and hope across three generations of Palestinian American women.
Arabella gets an unexpected chance at love when she’s thrust into a conflict and history she’s tried to avoid all her life.
Zoya is playing matchmaker for her last unmarried granddaughter and stirring up buried memories.
Naya is keeping a secret from her children that will change all their lives.
Thirty-five-year-old Arabella, a New York theatre director whose dating and career prospects are drying up, is offered an opportunity to direct a risqué cross-dressing interpretation of a Shakespeare classic—that might garner international attention—in the West Bank. Her mother, Naya, and grandmother, Zoya, hatch a plot to match her with Aziz, a Palestinian American doctor volunteering in Gaza. Arabella agrees to meet Aziz, since her growing feelings for Yoav, a celebrated Israeli American theatre designer, seem destined for disaster...
With biting hilarity, Too Soon introduces us to a trio of bold and unforgettable voices. This dramatic saga follows one family’s epic journey fleeing war-torn Jaffa in 1948, chasing the American Dream in Detroit and San Francisco in the sixties and seventies, hustling in the New York theatre scene post-9/11, and daring to stage a show in Palestine in 2012. Upon learning one of them is living on borrowed time, the three women fight to live, make art, and love on their own terms. A funny, sexy, and heart-wrenching literary debut, Too Soon illuminates our shared history and asks, how can we set ourselves free?
Genre: Literary Fiction
A funny, sexy, and heart-wrenching literary debut that explores exile, ambition, and hope across three generations of Palestinian American women.
Arabella gets an unexpected chance at love when she’s thrust into a conflict and history she’s tried to avoid all her life.
Zoya is playing matchmaker for her last unmarried granddaughter and stirring up buried memories.
Naya is keeping a secret from her children that will change all their lives.
Thirty-five-year-old Arabella, a New York theatre director whose dating and career prospects are drying up, is offered an opportunity to direct a risqué cross-dressing interpretation of a Shakespeare classic—that might garner international attention—in the West Bank. Her mother, Naya, and grandmother, Zoya, hatch a plot to match her with Aziz, a Palestinian American doctor volunteering in Gaza. Arabella agrees to meet Aziz, since her growing feelings for Yoav, a celebrated Israeli American theatre designer, seem destined for disaster...
With biting hilarity, Too Soon introduces us to a trio of bold and unforgettable voices. This dramatic saga follows one family’s epic journey fleeing war-torn Jaffa in 1948, chasing the American Dream in Detroit and San Francisco in the sixties and seventies, hustling in the New York theatre scene post-9/11, and daring to stage a show in Palestine in 2012. Upon learning one of them is living on borrowed time, the three women fight to live, make art, and love on their own terms. A funny, sexy, and heart-wrenching literary debut, Too Soon illuminates our shared history and asks, how can we set ourselves free?
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"Too Soon braids the lives of three passionate Palestinian women as they move through a turbulent century. From a sparkling harborside home in Jaffa in the forties, to the slums of Detroit in the sixties and the stages of contemporary New York theater, each generation must contend with patriarchy within her community and prejudice from outside it. A deft, honest novel that refuses to shun complexity as it explores the costs of love and motherhood." - Geraldine Brooks
"Too Soon is about what it means to leave home, what it means to return home, and what happens when home is an elusive concept. Sharp, propulsive, and irreverent, this story is profound without ever becoming ponderous - and I haven't been this excited about a debut novel in a long time." - Rebecca Makkai
"Too Soon is funny, startling, fresh, deeply felt, moving, and full of an important commitment to the complexities of character. It also sings of a subject that is deeply necessary in a way that is new and full of energy. I admire this work." - Rick Moody
"An unpredictable and expansive novel of history's intimate grip on the present. Three generations of Palestinian women fight for their lives, passions, and talents while facing exile, male power, and a corrupt art world. They each strategize survival in specific and recognizable ways, stretching the possible. Betty Shamieh's characters are real-to-life complex individuals who will keep readers surprised and moved. A book that expands the range of American fiction." - Sarah Schulman
"Too Soon is a deeply moving and humorous novel about the Palestinian and Palestinian American experience. Spanning decades and moving back and forth through time, Shamieh's story explores the lives of three generations of Palestinian women. Through the voices of her unforgettable characters, Shamieh dramatizes a wide range of complex themes, including identity, the meaning of home, war, romance, the creation of art, and the trauma of forced displacement. An exhilarating read." - Ghassan Zeineddine
"Too Soon is about what it means to leave home, what it means to return home, and what happens when home is an elusive concept. Sharp, propulsive, and irreverent, this story is profound without ever becoming ponderous - and I haven't been this excited about a debut novel in a long time." - Rebecca Makkai
"Too Soon is funny, startling, fresh, deeply felt, moving, and full of an important commitment to the complexities of character. It also sings of a subject that is deeply necessary in a way that is new and full of energy. I admire this work." - Rick Moody
"An unpredictable and expansive novel of history's intimate grip on the present. Three generations of Palestinian women fight for their lives, passions, and talents while facing exile, male power, and a corrupt art world. They each strategize survival in specific and recognizable ways, stretching the possible. Betty Shamieh's characters are real-to-life complex individuals who will keep readers surprised and moved. A book that expands the range of American fiction." - Sarah Schulman
"Too Soon is a deeply moving and humorous novel about the Palestinian and Palestinian American experience. Spanning decades and moving back and forth through time, Shamieh's story explores the lives of three generations of Palestinian women. Through the voices of her unforgettable characters, Shamieh dramatizes a wide range of complex themes, including identity, the meaning of home, war, romance, the creation of art, and the trauma of forced displacement. An exhilarating read." - Ghassan Zeineddine
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