Emigrating Home

THE BOOK

9/11 and the ‘War on Terror’ made some Arabs living in the West go home. So did the 1956 Suez Crisis.

For those brought up in the Middle East it was relatively easy, but what about those who weren't?

”Emigrating Home” may provide some insights into this. It is the story of Yasseen, brought up in Jamaica, a British colony at the time, and Britain, who ‘went home’ to Egypt to visit his father and step-family after the Suez Crisis.

It is a faction memoir. It concerns real events in Yasseen’s life as a dual British/Egyptian national, but the author uses other names than the real ones for most of the people and some of the places in his account.

His Egyptian family welcomes him warmly in Cairo, but he knows little Arabic and little about Egypt. This, combined with his Egyptian looks, leads to misunderstandings.

The story opens in Cairo with his reflecting on how he got into this strange situation, while he practices Egyptian body language in a mirror and fends off a telephone flirt. He returns in memory to Southampton whence he began his voyage to Egypt on a P&O liner. As the ship journeys towards Port Said, he recalls his early life in Jamaica and his school and university days in Britain.

Once an admirer of Anthony Eden, he stops wearing a Homburg hat in Eden's honour when the Suez crisis bursts on the world and helps to organise a university demo against the action.

"In Cairo his family advises him on how to behave. His father tells him he must try to be less of a George" and more of an Egyptian. To this he replies: "If you'd wanted more of an Aly, you and Mummy should have brought me up as an Aly.

This, if the book has a message, is it. In an age of easy travel, refugees, migrant workers, mixed marriages and divorce, it is easy to bring up culturally dysfunctional children.

Despite his initial difficulties, however, Yasseen eventually comes to feel accepted and stays.

'Emigrating Home' is published as a “Print on Demand” (POD) book by:

1st Books Library,
1663 Liberty Drive,
Suite 200,
Bloomington,
IN47403,
U.S.A.

It is available on their web site under Emigrating Home
where you can also see a preview of it.
 
It is also on sale at Amazon and its British branch  as well as at Barnes and Noble.

You can also order it from your local bookshop.
But if you do that, remember to quote the name of the publisher and the book’s ISBN number: 0-7596- 9231-9.