THE WRONG END OF THE TABLE A Mostly Comic Memoir of a Muslim Arab American Woman Just Trying to Fit In

Author-narrator Ayser Salman regales listeners with stories of her misfit childhood as an Iraqi immigrant in America's Midwest. She looks back with humor at the ups and downs of being the odd one out most of the time in school. As narrator, Salman sets a rapid pace that carries listeners along from pre-Saddam Hussein Baghdad to day care in Lexington, Kentucky. She recounts every social and cultural misunderstanding with honesty and grace that further draw listeners in. This is an unflinching examination of the complex mix that is childhood, identity, and coming of age in America. Salman narrates these often comic intersections with the warmth of someone confiding to her close friends. By the end of the book, listeners may wish they were. M.R. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine [Published: FEBRUARY 2019]