The Girl Who Fell to Earth: A Memoir

“[A] rare insider’s glimpse of modern Bedouin life” this memoir by an Arab-American who comes of age in the Middle East is “frank, funny and dauntless” (Kirkus Reviews, starred reviews).

When Sophia Al-Maria’s mother sends her away from rainy Washington State to stay with her husband’s desert-dwelling Bedouin family in Qatar, she intends it to be a sort of teenage cultural boot camp. What her mother doesn’t know is that there are some things about growing up that are universal. In Qatar, Sophia is faced with a new world she’d only imagined as a child. She sets out to find her freedom, even in the most unlikely of places.

The Girl Who Fell to Earth takes readers from the green valleys of the Pacific Northwest to the dunes of the Arabian Gulf and on to the sprawling chaos of Cairo. Struggling to adapt to her nomadic lifestyle, Sophia is haunted by the feeling that she is perpetually in exile: hovering somewhere between two families, two cultures, and two worlds. She must make a place for herself—a complex journey that includes finding young love in the Arabian Gulf, rebellion in Cairo, and, finally, self-discovery in the mountains of Sinai.

The Girl Who Fell to Earth heralds the arrival of an electric new talent and takes us on the most personal of quests: the voyage home.

“Funny, insightful . . . a satisfying trek through a complex cross-cultural landscape toward a creative and satisfying life.” —Publishers Weekly

“[Al Maria’s] wry, eloquent narrative does a great job of blending the viewpoints of the 12-year-old then and the adult writer now, while the intersection of contemporary cultures explodes the comfortable stereotypes, old and new.” —Booklist

© 2023 Harper Perennial (Ebook): 9780062098740

Release date

Ebook: 21 November 2023