I, the Divine

Named after the "divine" Sarah Bernhardt, red-haired Sarah Nour El-Din is determined to make of her life a work of art. She tries to tell her story, sometimes casting it as a memoir, sometimes a novel, always fascinatingly incomplete.

Raised in a hybrid family shaped by divorce and remarriage, and by Beirut in wartime, Sarah finds a fragile peace in self-imposed exile in the United States. Her extraordinary dignity is supported by a best friend, a grown-up son, occasional sensual pleasures, and her determination to tell her own story.

Like her narrative, Sarah's life is broken and fragmented, but the bright, strange, often startling pieces are moving and memorable. Reading group guide included.