ArtView December 2013 | Page 49

involvement in their Lebanese culture as well as people license to question: do you belong here? And their Anglo-Australian one, whereas his mother, belonging is a very big theme of the whole book. because it was so taboo at the time that she married his dad, that she actually eloped, and her family Sophie’s struggling with belonging too, because didn’t speak to her for a very long time... and that she’s torn between being too liberal for her was the reality for some women that married Lebanese community, and too ethnic for the interracially, so he doesn’t really have a lot of Aussies... And his parents’ story is one that exposure to the Lebanese culture, so it’s something you’ve lived out in your own life... that’s very new for him. In a sense, yes. So it’s in him but he doesn’t understand it... So you brought home a boy, who was an AngloThat’s right, and because he’s just moved in with his Australian boy – tell us about that, and how that grandparents, the Lebanese side, it’s something that played out with your parents... he’s learning... it’s in the school around him but because he hasn’t been exposed to it, it gives other