{"product_id":"the-pistachio-seller-9780815610311","title":"The Pistachio Seller","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"It was Saturday. I remember. And while he was standing on a step ladder in the hall, changing a light bulb in the faint light coming through the window, I decided to love him.\" So begins this wonderfully exuberant novel of quixotic adolescent longing and the enduring search for self. Set in middle class urban Egypt, the story chronicles young Wafaa's struggle to come to terms with her own sexuality and her romantic infatuation with her cousin Ashraf, a spoiled and confident young Egyptian who was educated in England. Ashraf's worldliness and carefree attitudes stand in sharp contrast to Wafaa's provincial Islamic piousness. As both mature they find outside events encroaching upon their sheltered lives, forcing each to confront challenges to their youthful ideologies. Ashraf is chastened by an economic turnaround that takes him to the United States as an impoverished immigrant, and Wafaa begins to question her rigid fundamentalist beliefs that seem increasingly inadequate to make sense of the complex world around her. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eReem Bassiouney effortlessly captures the voices of her characters, bringing them to life and allowing the reader to be fully immersed in their lives as they unfold in moving, often funny, and eventually triumphant ways. \u003ci\u003eThe Pistachio Seller \u003c\/i\u003eintroduces Bassiouney's work to an English audience for the first time.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReem Bassiouney\u003c\/b\u003e is an acclaimed contemporary Arabic writer. She has published five novels in the Middle East including \u003ci\u003eThe Smell of the Sea\u003c\/i\u003e. She is assistant professor of Arabic at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Syracuse University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50566332317970,"sku":"9780815610311","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_9f4fe81a-28cc-4f64-a4d4-9093e277d4f2.jpg?v=1731894847","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-pistachio-seller-9780815610311","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}