Too Soon

"Betty Shamieh’s page-turner of a family epic, Too Soon, tells the story of three generations of Palestinian-American women finding their places in the world, looking for love and, as Shamieh puts it, wringing “an acceptable amount of joy out of a world that is not designed for them to do so.” The story starts with granddaughter Arabella, a theater director given a chance to put on Hamlet in the West Bank. Her grandmother sets her up with an old flame’s grandson, a doctor saving lives in Gaza. But Arabella can’t stop thinking about the Israeli American she’s leaving behind in New York."