Charlie and Susan Muaddi Darraj (Behind You Is The Sea) discuss the Palestinian Christian community, her immigrant characters and their children, how she used the current conflict in her stories, and the segregation and working class in Baltimore, Maryland.

Please note this episode mentions domestic violence.

A transcript is available on my site

Books mentioned by name or extensively: Lawrence T Brown: The Black Butterfly Susan Muaddi Darraj: Farah Rocks Fifth Grade Susan Muaddi Darraj: Farah Rocks Summer Break Susan Muaddi Darraj: Farah Rocks New Beginnings Susan Muaddi Darraj: Farah Rocks Florida Susan Muaddi Darraj: Behind You Is The Sea

Buy the books: UK || USA

Release details: recorded 25th June 2024; published 11th November 2024

Where to find Susan online: Website || Twitter || Instagram

Where to find Charlie online: Website || Twitter || Instagram || TikTok

Discussions

01:49 The initial inspiration for Behind You Is The Sea - Susan's character, Marcus Salameh 05:01 How poetry runs in Susan's family 07:21 The focus on women and women's worth 09:15 Susan's choices in making most of her characters people from one family 10:36 The story Hashtag - including stories of domestic violence and murder - and how the West would see it 16:13 How Susan doesn't want to be 'nice' to her characters 18:37 The different generations and how they relate to one another, and then we move on to discuss a spin-off novel that Susan is writing 23:55 Where the title, Behind You Is The Sea, came from 26:16 How Palestinian Muslims and Palestinian Christians live peacefully together in Palestine 31:13 Segregation in Baltimore 35:53 The way Susan included the current Arab-Israeli conflict in the book 37:35 What's next - Susan's current works in progress, including her work for children

Disclosure: If you buy books linked to my site, I may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops