The Servant

by Fatima Sharafeddine

Overview

Faten’s happy life in her village comes to an abrupt end when her father arranges for her to work as a servant for a wealthy Beirut couple with two spoiled daughters. What does a bright, ambitious seventeen-year-old do when she is suddenly deprived of her friends, family, education and freedom?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781554983087
Publisher:	Groundwood Books
Publication date:	03/14/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	492,643
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 6.80(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	HL770L (what's this?)
Age Range:	12 - 15 Years

About the Author

Fatima Sharafeddine is an award-winning Lebanese writer who has twice been nominated for the prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. She was born in Beirut and spent her early childhood in Sierra Leone. Her family returned to Lebanon when she was still a child, and she spent fifteen years living through the Lebanese civil war. After receiving a B.A. in Early Childhood Education, she moved to the United States to pursue her graduate studies. She earned a Masters degree in education and another in Arabic literature. She has taught preschool in Houston, and Arabic language and culture classes at Rice University.

Editorial Reviews

"Shortly after he enters his building, the young man appears in his apartment. Faten watches his movements from the corner of the little window in her room. He appears here. Disappears. Reappears there. He plays the piano sometimes, and Faten watches. Her heart jumps at every glimpse she gets of him."
— from the book


Selected for the American Library Associations's Amelia Bloomer Project List

"[Faten’s story] will draw in young readers preoccupied with society, challenging parents and their own fears." — The New York Times

"Fans of literary and historical fiction will be drawn to this rich portrayal of the challenges faced and opportunities forged by brave young women in patriarchal, war-torn Lebanon." — Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

First published in Arabic in 2010, this is the compelling story of a determined young woman coming of age during the Lebanese civil war in 1987. Faten is a mere 15 when she first makes the long trip from her mountain village to Beirut, where her father has arranged for her to work as a maid to help the family make ends meet. For two years, she does nothing but work, keeping none of the money she earns and getting only a few hours per week to herself. Unsatisfied with this life, Faten longs to go to university to become a nurse. Eventually, she makes contact with Marwan, a handsome neighbor who helps her to arrange to take the exams she'll need to get into college. But when she sneaks away to take the first of the tests, she is caught and fired from her job. Chastened, Faten returns to her village, where she must try to secure her father's understanding, or at least forgiveness, and make her way back to Beirut to pursue her dream. Sharafeddine tells the story in a deliberate, third-person, present-tense voice, creating a narrative with an old-fashioned, rather formal feel and a clear preference for women's self-determination and independence. Fans of literary and historical fiction will be drawn to this rich portrayal of the challenges faced and opportunities forged by brave young women in patriarchal, war-torn Lebanon. (Historical fiction. 12 & up)

Kirkus Reviews