Description

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The American daughter of Egyptian Jewish immigrants journeys in search of belonging from Brazil to New Orleans and beyond--includes recipes and photos

Born to Egyptian Sephardic Jews who fled to the United States after the Arab-Israeli war of 1948, Joyce Zonana spent her childhood in Brooklyn. But her experience of Jewish culture was very different from that of the other children she knew, from the foods they ate to the language they spoke. As she struggled to find a sense of inclusion, never feeling completely American or completely Egyptian, a childhood trip to Brazil became the basis for a lifelong quest to find her place in the world.

Meeting members of her extended family who had migrated to Brazil was one step in discovering the kind of life she might have lived in Egypt, and exploring the woman she was becoming. Through travels that ranged from Cairo to Oklahoma and finally New Orleans in the shadow of Katrina, and including an evocative exploration of the way food varies from culture to culture, this is a "frank, spirited memoir of identity from a Brooklyn-raised, Egyptian-born Jewish feminist." (Kirkus Reviews)

About the Author

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Born in Cairo, Joyce Zonana earned her PhD in English at the University of Pennsylvania and is currently Associate Professor of English and Women's Studies at the Borough of Manhattan Community College. Before coming to BMCC, she taught for 15 years at the University of New Orleans, where she was also Director of Women's Studies.