Qudeen the Magnificent — Patricia D. Benke

Twelve compelling stories of young girls in conflict with their Arabic culture and the world around them. As religions clash, the mysterious suicide of a promising high school student leads to a young girl's understanding of vengeance and redemption. A Syrian child farmed out to another family during the Great Depression brings humorous clarity to poverty and the will to survive. In a postwar coal town, a mischievous child discovers the secret life and dignity of a wandering violinist whose existence depends on begging. A daughter's memories and a diary expose what is true and not true about her father. Out of a young woman's peripheral vision pops an Arabic grandfather she hated, a ghost from the past that, like it or not, she must now deal with. Together and separately the stories explore a complex range of universal themes and experiences common to many immigrant populations, especially those involving challenges faced by girls. Whether set in Pennsylvania or California or on a train in between, the stories in Qudeen the Magnificent are probing and entertaining, a chorus of individual voices spanning the East and West coasts and the decades of the 20th century.