For celebrated novelist Danny Ramadan to tell the story of his life, he must revisit dark corners of his past he'd rather forget and unearth memories of a city he can no longer return to. Starting with his family's humble beginnings in Damascus, he takes readers on an epic, border-crossing journey: to the city's underground network of queer safe homes, through Arab Spring uprisings across the Middle East, and a traumatic six-week imprisonment. What emerges is a powerful refutation of the oversimplified refugee narrative - a book that holds space for joy alongside sorrow, for nuance and complicated ambivalences.
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