The Wrong End of the Telescope

The Wrong End of the Telescope is a 2022 Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction winner that follows Lebanese doctor Mina Simpson as she arrives at the Moria refugee camp on Lesbos, Greece. There, she bonds with Sumaiya, a Syrian matriarch with terminal liver cancer, and confronts the circumstances of the migrants' displacement and her own constraints in helping them. The book is a beautiful, well-paced, enraging, funny, and heartbreaking portrayal of indomitable spirits facing a humanitarian crisis.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 368 pages
Publication date: 05 May 2022
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

Winner of the Pen/Faulkner Award for Fiction 2022, The Wrong End of the Telescope is a captivating novel that blends beauty, pacing, anger, humor, and heartache. The Guardian hails it as "spectacular," while the New York Times praises its "deeply poignant" prose, reminiscent of old master storytellers from the Middle East.

Mina Simpson, a Lebanese doctor, arrives at the infamous Moria refugee camp on Lesbos, Greece, after being urgently summoned for help by her friend, who runs an NGO there. Alienated from her family except for her beloved brother, Mina has avoided being so close to her homeland for decades. However, with a week off work and apart from her wife of thirty years, Mina hopes to accomplish something meaningful among the abundance of Western volunteers who pose for selfies with beached dinghies and the camp's children.

Soon, a boat crosses, bringing Sumaiya, a fiercely resolute Syrian matriarch with terminal liver cancer. Determined to protect her children and husband at all costs, Sumaiya refuses to alert her family to her diagnosis. Bonded together by Sumaiya's secret, a deep connection sparks between the two women, and as Mina prepares a course of treatment with the limited resources on hand, she confronts the circumstances of the migrants' displacement, as well as her own constraints in helping them.

Not since the inimitable Aaliya of An Unnecessary Woman has Rabih Alameddine conjured such a winsome heroine to lead us to one of the most wrenching conflicts of our time. Cunningly weaving in stories of other refugees into Mina's singular own, The Wrong End of the Telescope is a dazzling tapestry of both tragic and amusing portraits of indomitable spirits facing this humanitarian crisis.

Alameddine hits a distinctly contemporary note with this new book about refugees. It is a powerful exploration of the human cost of displacement, as well as the resilience and determination of those who face it. With its rich prose and compelling characters, The Wrong End of the Telescope is a must-read for anyone interested in contemporary literature and the ongoing global refugee crisis.

Weight: 288g
Dimension: 126 x 197 x 27 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781472156129