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My book, intolerable is really a story about the Middle East, the Arab world touching particularly
on the three countries my family lived in. I was born in Yemen, grew up in Beirut and
then went to live in Cairo and then back to Yemen. So it is a story of that part of the
world and it’s tracking its shift from secularism into a kind of hardline Islam and fundamentalism.
And it's using my family as the through line of tracking that shift. But also in many ways
it is a coming out story; it’s a story about finding my place in the world here in Toronto.
The book came of great sadness, personal sadness and depression. I went to Yemen to visit my
family in Sanaa in Yemen in 2006, and I had been living in Toronto for 10 years at that
point. And when I went there I was struck by the deterioration in their lives, and the
gap between their lives and mine. I always thought of my life as very privileged and
I went back and saw a family that was very much caught up in the turmoil of what’s
going on in the Middle East. So a friend of mine said you are a writer so why don’t
you just write something about it. It’s been five years in the making...between the
idea of the book and it actually hitting the shelves. So I always like to say it’s been
the longest therapy session in the world.
Having a gay neighbourhood was so central to how I felt about this city. It is a place
where I can be who I am. I’m fond of the Church and Wellesley neighbourhood because
it has given me a home within my home. It’s the first part of the world where I felt belonged
to me.
I’d like readers to read my book and think about all those nameless and almost faceless
people they see on the news when they see coverage of the Middle East, protesting in
the streets of Cairo. I’d like them to think there are people there with stories not unlike
our own here in Toronto.
I think the Toronto Book Awards are great because, among other things, they promote
local writers. So I think an award that in part is about books in which Toronto, there
is some connection to Toronto helps puts Toronto on the map a little bit more.