The River Knows My Name

From award-winning writer Mortada Gzar, author of the acclaimed memoir Im in Seattle, Where Are You?, comes an enthralling and lyrical novel about a girls liberating self-discovery in Iraq.

Fifteen-year-old Charlotte is restlessly coming of age in early twentieth-century Basra, Iraq. The daughter of a Seattle doctor and missionary, Charlotte craves an adventure of her own making. Just the thought of the steppes, hills, valleys, and the winding river stirs Charlottes imagination and sends her compass of flight dancing.

So, preferring the wondrous unknown to solicitude, Charlotte packs up copies of her fathers Gospels and a statue of the Baby Jesus and runs away. Then, in a desperate search to find his daughter, Charlottes own father goes missing. With the help of two womenthe missions Sister Baghdadli and Shathra, a guide to the lostCharlotte embarks on a quest steeped in local lore, and as mysterious and marvelous as the river itself. In turn, Charlotte may find whats shes been looking for all along: the ability to stake a claim on her own identity.

In this rich and immersive novel, Mortada Gzar explores the power of belief, the drive for escape, and the exhilaration of self-discovery.