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Randa Jarrar

Biography

Randa Jarrar

Randa Jarrar is the author of the memoir LOVE IS AN EX-COUNTRY, the novel A MAP OF HOME, and the collection of stories HIM, ME, MUHAMMAD ALI. She is also a performer who has recently appeared in Hulu’s "Ramy," as well as the short films Got Game and Finjan. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Salon, Bitch, Buzzfeed and elsewhere. She is a recipient of a Creative Capital Award and an American Book Award, as well as awards and fellowships from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, Hedgebrook, PEN and others. She lives in Los Angeles.

Randa Jarrar

Books by Randa Jarrar

Love Is an Ex-Country: A Memoir
by Randa Jarrar - Memoir, Nonfiction

As an American raised for a time in Egypt, and finding herself captivated by the story of a celebrated Egyptian belly dancer's journey across the United States in the 1940s, Randa Jarrar sets off from her home in California to her parents' in Connecticut. Coloring this road trip are journeys abroad and recollections of a life lived with daring. Reclaiming her autonomy after a life of survival --- domestic assault as a child and, later, as a wife; threats and doxxing after her viral tweet about Barbara Bush --- Jarrar offers a bold look at domestic violence, single motherhood and sexuality through the lens of the punished-yet-triumphant body. On the way, she schools a rest-stop racist, destroys Confederate flags in the desert, and visits the Chicago neighborhood where her immigrant parents first lived.