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by Weam Namou (Author)
A young Chaldean Christian girl grows up in a large family, in a house full of voices, stories, and whispered warnings about "Saddam." Summers are spent on rooftops, listening to family conversations drift through the night air. In Baghdad, she discovers both the warmth of belonging and the fear of being different.
She learns early what can be said and what must remain silent. Her family carries a secret hope they speak of quietly-America, a word that floats through the house like a perfume she can smell but cannot see, lingering long after the room has emptied.
As childhood innocence fades, storytelling becomes her way of understanding the world. Through memory, she learns why stories matter-how they are held close and passed on when everything else can be taken away.
