An intimate graphic memoir about an American girl growing up with her
Egyptian father's new family, forging unexpected bonds and navigating
adolescence in an unfamiliar country--from the award-winning author of
I Was Their American Dream.
"What a joy it is to read Malaka Gharib's It Won't Always Be Like
This, to have your heart expertly broken and put back together within
the space of a few panels, to have your wonder in the world restored by
her electric mind."--Mira Jacob, author of Good Talk: A Memoir in
Conversations
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Book Riot
It's hard enough to figure out boys, beauty, and being cool when you're
young, but even harder when you're in a country where you don't
understand the language, culture, or social norms.
Nine-year-old Malaka Gharib arrives in Egypt for her annual summer
vacation abroad and assumes it'll be just like every other vacation
she's spent at her dad's place in Cairo. But her father shares news that
changes everything: He has remarried. Over the next fifteen years, as
she visits her father's growing family summer after summer, Malaka must
reevaluate her place in his life. All that on top of maintaining her
coolness!
Malaka doesn't feel like she fits in when she visits her dad--she sticks
out in Egypt and doesn't look anything like her fair-haired half
siblings. But she adapts. She learns that Nirvana isn't as cool as Nancy
Ajram, that there's nothing better than a Fanta and a melon-mint hookah,
and that her new stepmother, Hala, isn't so different from Malaka
herself.
It Won't Always Be Like This is a touching time capsule of Gharib's
childhood memories--each summer a fleeting moment in time--and a
powerful reflection on identity, relationships, values, family, and what
happens when it all collides.
