The Syrian Ladies Benevolent Society

The Syrian Ladies Benevolent Society

Written by: Estima, Christine

With imaginative aplomb and abiding passion, The Syrian Ladies Benevolent Society masterfully traces the deep roots of the Arab immigrant experience. These unforgettable interlocking stories follow an Arab family as they flee the Middle East in the nineteenth century, settle in Montreal in the twentieth, and face the collision between tradition and modernity in the twenty-first. This family includes trailblazing Lebanese freedom fighters, undercover operatives in World War II, and brave Syrian refugees trying to find their place in Canadian society.

The line of daring women culminates in Azurée, a young Arab woman living in the echoes of her ancestors' voices.

With imaginative aplomb and abiding passion, The Syrian Ladies Benevolent Society masterfully traces the deep roots of the Arab immigrant experience. These unforgettable interlocking stories follow an Arab family as they flee the Middle East in the nineteenth century, settle in Montreal in the twentieth, and face the collision between tradition and modernity in the twenty-first. This family includes trailblazing Lebanese freedom fighters, undercover operatives in World War II, and brave Syrian refugees trying to find their place in Canadian society.

The line of daring women culminates in Azurée, a young Arab woman living in the echoes of her ancestors' voices.

Published By House of Anansi Press Inc — Nov 14, 2023
Specifications 208 pages | 5.5 in x 7 in
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Excerpt
Written By

CHRISTINE ESTIMA is an Arab woman of mixed ethnicity (Lebanese, Syrian, and Portuguese) whose essays and short stories have appeared in the New York Times, the Walrus, VICE, the Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, Maisonneuve, and many more. She was shortlisted for the 2018 Allan Slaight Prize for Journalism, longlisted for the 2015 CBC Canada Writes Creative Nonfiction prize, and a finalist for the 2011 Writers’ Union of Canada short prose competition. Born in Trois-Rivières and raised in Montreal, she lives in Toronto.

Written By

CHRISTINE ESTIMA is an Arab woman of mixed ethnicity (Lebanese, Syrian, and Portuguese) whose essays and short stories have appeared in the New York Times, the Walrus, VICE, the Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, Maisonneuve, and many more. She was shortlisted for the 2018 Allan Slaight Prize for Journalism, longlisted for the 2015 CBC Canada Writes Creative Nonfiction prize, and a finalist for the 2011 Writers’ Union of Canada short prose competition. Born in Trois-Rivières and raised in Montreal, she lives in Toronto.

Commended, CBC 2023 Best Canadian Fiction, 2023

Memorable, vivid, and subversive at times, the stories bring to life a type of female experience seldom seen in immigrant narratives.

” —New Canadian Media

A genuine and compelling narrative … The Syrian Ladies’ Benevolent Society is smart, elegant, and a necessary contribution to the overall literature challenging so many suffocating cultural stereotypes in Canadian society.

” —The Miramichi Reader

The material in these stories often does more than just flirt with dark subject matter, but the author’s empathy and sharp understanding of human frailty nevertheless injects The Syrian Ladies Benevolent Society with the vibrancy of life. The book opens with a reference to fire, and Estima is a valiant recorder of the heat that burns us, inside and out.

” —That Shakespearean Rag

In writing across cultures, borders, and centuries, Estima credits her ancestors with direct inspiration: ‘I hear your voices in my veins; you will not be forgotten.’ Neither will Estima's enthralling writing.

” —Shelf Awareness

Across the varying settings and time periods, what remains consistent is Estima’s detailed and evocative prose as she weaves a haunting tale of how the pain of loss—whether of our home, our loved ones or our sense of self—reverberates across generations.

” —Maisonneuve

Years in the making, [The Syrian Ladies Benevolent Society] reveals a writer who is sure of her subject and craft … Precise and sensitive.

” —Literary Review of Canada

Vivid and arresting from the very first line, this accomplished debut will leave an indelible imprint on your heart and mind with its powerful prose and compassionate storytelling. This collection weaves women together through the fabric of time and through their bravery, humanity, and hope even in the face of atrocities and defeat. Compulsively readable and intricately wrought, The Syrian Ladies Benevolent Society is a must-read from a writer to watch.

” —Marissa Stapley, New York Times bestselling author of Lucky

Gorgeous and gutting, The Syrian Ladies Benevolent Society asks (screams, whispers): What makes us? Are we our pasts, all our histories and families and generational traumas stacked on top of each other like a piece of additive sculpture? Or are we our present, our choices, remaking ourselves each day in a continual act of becoming? Instead of answering with either/or, this book says (screams, whispers), over and over again, yes.

” —Natalie Zina Walschots, author of Hench

Christine Estima’s debut is startling and heartrending, generous and vivid. It’s easy to fall in love with Christine’s insistence on compassion for women who are afforded little of it. With extraordinary prose and boundless empathy, The Syrian Ladies Benevolent Society asks us to consider if we are inevitable products of our family history. No matter what answer you land on, this book will transform you.

” —Elamin Abdelmahmoud, author of Son of Elsewhere

In The Syrian Ladies Benevolent Society, the past is very much a living character that shapes and informs the present moment. Christine Estima has penned a refreshingly vibrant and multicultural portrait of Montreal that braids together different branches of the historical record with precise prose and a sharp eye for human complexity.

” —Dimitri Nasrallah, author of Hotline