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Book Reviewed by:From a former CIA officer comes the riveting account of a royal Middle Eastern family exiled to the American suburbs.
When her father is killed in a coup, 15-year-old Laila flees from the war-torn middle east to a life of exile and anonymity in the U.S. Gradually she adjusts to a new school, new friends, and a new culture, but while Laila sees opportunity in her new life, her mother is focused on the past. She's conspiring with CIA operatives and rebel factions to regain the throne their family lost. Laila can't bear to stand still as an international crisis takes shape around her, but how can one girl stop a conflict that spans generations?
J.C. Carleson delivers a fascinating account of a girl - and a country - on the brink, and a rare glimpse at the personal side of international politics.
The Tyrant’s Daughter vividly represents the teenage experience, not only in forging one’s identity in the world, but in learning that the world is scarcely ever simple; that it’s full of complexities and contradictions. Laila’s father loved her. But he was a tyrant. Her new friend Emmy doesn’t wear layers like Laila was required to in her country. But she’s not a whore because of that, as Laila thought early on. She wasn’t allowed to be affectionate with boys, or even know them as closely as she does Ian, who she meets at school. Laila can be an entirely new girl here in America - a girl who can embrace these complexities and contradictions; a girl who can finally be herself...continued
Full Review
(836 words)
(Reviewed by Rory L. Aronsky).
Unlike Laila, who is a member of the ruling family of her Middle Eastern country, most child refugees don't have the luxury of fleeing to a more hospitable country when their own plunges into war. While The Tyrant's Daughter is set in an unknown Middle-Eastern country probably closer to Iraq than Syria, the plight of the refugees in Syria is much in the news.
By mid-2014, OCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) estimated that half of Syria's 22 million population was affected by the conflict and in need of humanitarian assistance, including over 7 million internally displaced. In 2014, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that 3,000 to 6,000 people leave Syria each ...
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