Description

The author of the beloved novel An Unnecessary Woman talks with award-winning journalist Mona Eltahawy about his latest work, a gripping story of an Arab American trans woman's journey among Syrian refugees. The National Book Award finalist cunningly weaves a bedazzling tapestry of both tragic and amusing portraits of indomitable spirits facing a humanitarian crisis. With a performance from the novel by Pooya Mohseni (Big Dogs).

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"Rabih Alameddine is one of our most daring writers—daring not in the cheap sense of lurid or racy, but as a surgeon, a philosopher, an explorer, or a dancer." —Michael Chabon

Pre-order a signed copy of The Wrong End of the Telescope from our friends at Strand here and use code "SymphonySpace" to receive a 10% discount.

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Rabih Alameddine is a Lebanese-American painter and writer. He is the author of the novels The Angel of History; An Unnecessary Woman; The Hakawati; I, the Divine; Koolaids; and the story collection The Perv. In 2019, he won the Dos Passos Prize.

Mona Eltahawy is the founder and editor-in-chief of the newsletter Feminist Giant. Her first book, Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution, targeted patriarchy in the Middle East and North Africa, and her second, The Seven Necessary Sins For Women and Girls, took her disruption worldwide. Eltahawy’s commentary has appeared in media around the world.

Pooya Mohseni is a transgender actor, writer, and activist, born and raised in Tehran, Iran, based in New York City. She has appeared in Hamlet and Comedy of Errors at the Play On Shakespeare Festival, One Woman with United Solo, Galatea with the Women’s Pipeline Project, The Good Muslim at Ensemble Studio Theatre, White Snake at Baltimore Center Stage, The Maids with Access Theatre, Death of the Persian Prince with the Midtown International Theatre Festival and the South Asian International Performing Arts Festival, and A Touch of Forever with the New York International Fringe Festival. Her film and television credits include Law & Order: SVU, Big Dogs, Falling Water, Madam Secretary, Lofty Dreams, The World Trader, Lucky, Terrifier, Day 39, Heather, and See You Then. Mohseni is a transgender advocate as well as a voice for immigrants’ and women’s issues.

At the Thalia Book Club, readers and writers meet for intimate conversations about compelling new books and favorite classics in fiction, essay, biography and more.

Expected Run Time is 75 minutes