Therese Soukar Chehade

Therese Soukar Chehade is an Arab American novelist. Her first book Loom: a Novel, published in 2010 by Syracuse University Press, won the 2011 Arab American Book Award. Chehade lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, where she teaches English language education.

Therese Soukar Chehade was born in Beirut, Lebanon. In 1983, she moved from Lebanon to Massachusetts. She credits Virginia Woolf's "To the Lighthouse" with inspiring her to eventually write in her non-native English. Chehade also says that she reads French, and enjoys the work of Mikhail Bulgakov. Additional authors who inspire her writing style include her former teacher, John Edgar Wideman, Marilynne Robinson, and Michael Ondaatje.

Synopsis

Chehade's first novel, "Loom", portrays a Lebanese-American family, the Zaydans, struggling to reconcile generational differences and immigrant identity. On the evening of the arrival of a cousin, Eva, from Lebanon, the Zaydans are sequestered by a blizzard. Amidst the storm, the family matriarch Emilie struggles with English and prefers not to speak. Her eldest daughter, Josephine, still lives at home with her brother George's family and remembers the independence she had in Lebanon. George's daughter, Marie, longs to leave behind her conservative family and head off to Berkeley. With Eva stranded in the storm in New York, and tensions rising, Emilie braves the blizzard to deliver a meal to the mysterious neighbor the Zaydans have nicknamed "Loom", and the family is forced to leave the metaphorical and actual isolation of their home as they go after her.

Influences

In writing the novel, Chehade drew heavily from her experiences growing up in during the Lebanese Civil War. Her memories of the war helped to inform the character development of Eva and Salma.

Reception

On release, Loom was recommended by Library Journal magazine, as part of its "Fall Firsts" purchase list.

• 2011 American Book Award for Loom: a Novel