It is the momentous year of 1917; the end of four hundred years of Ottoman Rule, the beginning of the British Mandate, and marks the birth of Salma's seventeenth child - Hasna. Not only is Hasna a girl born into a society that prizes boys, she is cursed with red hair, blue eyes and freckles. They set her apart, leave her excluded, and are viewed with suspicion in a society where superstitions are a part of daily life. Her father refers to her only as the girl; even her mother acknowledges that Hasna is not very pretty. Still, Hasna is smart, capable and hardworking - tenacious of life, though...

Whether Christian, Muslim, or Jew, whatever label we wear, we all learn to submit ourselves to God and trust that what He has planned for our lives is right and good. Whether we refer to the Divine as God, or Allah, or Yahweh, He is the One and the Same. There will be times that we don't understand what He has written into our lives, but He is always there watching over us, caring for us, loving us. That is the reassuring call from the mosque, and that is the reassurance that whispers to my spirit in the poetic lines of Hafez and Rumi, in the translated words from the Quran, in the quotes...

Mohammad and Sarah are both offered jobs to work for the UN which prompts the family to return to Palestine. Mohammad believes it's "just what the kids need." The older children are enrolled in the Ramallah Friends School and reluctantly become a part of a minority - the English-Speaking. Though Palestinian, they speak an accented Arabic, have an American mother, and were raised in the States. They wish they hadn't been forced to move. There are subtle changes as Mohammad finds himself slipping into the accepted definition of an Arab male; Sarah wonders if Mohammad should have married a...