3.5
I, The Divine: A Novel in First Chapters
ByPublisher Description
One of The Atlantic's Great American Novels
Named after the "divine" Sarah Bernhardt, red-haired Sarah Nour El-Din is "wonderful, irresistibly unique, funny, and amazing," raves Amy Tan. Determined to make of her life a work of art, she tries to tell her story, sometimes casting it as a memoir, sometimes a novel, always fascinatingly incomplete.
"Alameddine's new novel unfolds like a secret... creating a tale...humorous and heartbreaking and always real" (Los Angeles Times). "[W]ith each new approach, [Sarah] sheds another layer of her pretension, revealing another truth about her humanity" (San Francisco Weekly). Raised in a hybrid family shaped by divorce and remarriage, and by Beirut in wartime, Sarah finds a fragile peace in self-imposed exile in the United States. Her extraordinary dignity is supported by a best friend, a grown-up son, occasional sensual pleasures, and her determination to tell her own story. "Like her narrative, [Sarah's] life is broken and fragmented. [But] the bright, strange, often startling pieces...are moving and memorable" (Boston Globe). Reading group guide included.Download the free Fable app

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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities23 Reviews
3.5

Emily
Created 11 months agoShare
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“This book, like all of Alameddine’s work, will stay with me. I loved the “novel in first chapters” idea and how it echoed Sarah’s persistent set of fresh starts and her unwillingness to give up on living life and loving with her whole self. The weaving of war-related trauma and family drama felt authentic in its pacing and subtlety (or lack thereof). Definitely recommend.”

Simone Vitale
Created about 1 year agoShare
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Naya
Created over 1 year agoShare
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Hafsa Ahmed
Created about 2 years agoShare
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“Eng300”

pointofsighs
Created about 2 years agoShare
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“Rep: Lebanese cast, gay & lesbian characters
CWs: rape, misogyny, violence, suicide”
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