Overview

Exile of the Heart is a deeply moving and lyrical memoir by journalist Rasheed Abou-Elsamh, chronicling a lifelong search for belonging across borders, languages, and faiths. Born into a diplomatic family, Rasheed grew up in Geneva and Brasília, suspended between cultures, cosmopolitan yet rootless, privileged yet unsure of where home truly was. His story unfolds through vivid, intimate vignettes that reveal the beauty and ache of living between worlds. From quiet family moments shadowed by unspoken truths to the loneliness of exile and the freedom of self-discovery, Exile of the Heart captures what it means to find identity beyond geography or expectation. Both tender and fearless, this memoir explores themes of faith, identity, displacement, and resilience, asking what it truly means to belong - and reminding readers that sometimes the truest home is the one we build within ourselves. Rasheed writes about his family's arrival in Brasilia, Brazil, in 1975, and how they disliked the Brazilian capital, which was only 15 years old at the time. He also writes about coming out to his parents in 1983, and how their homophobic and violent reaction to this revelation led to decades of estrangement.

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Reviews

There is nothing journalists adore more than reading about the lives of other journalists. Rasheed's life won't disappoint on this score, covering, as it does, journalism in what would turn out to be throes of its own diminution and near-extinction in not one, but several lands and climes. But he does so with a candor and courage that proves without doubt his keen journalist's eye was always and everywhere matched by a heart and mind of vivid and generous humanity. To be able to do justice to the writerly and intimate lives of Filipinos, Brazilians, Americans, Saudis and more, is a feat only made possible by knowing how to wield his pen honestly. More than a chronicle of the end days of 20th century journalism, it is a distillation of a life which will find echoes in your own, wherever you may be from. -- Manuel L. Quezon III Columnist, Philippine Daily Inquirer

Author Information

Rasheed Abou-Elsamh is an Arab-American journalist and author. He was born in Washington, DC, and grew up in Switzerland and Brazil. He has a BA in Political Science from Swarthmore College, and worked at Arab News in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for 20 years. He was a opinion columnist for O Globo newspaper in Brazil for six years. He lives in Texas with his dog and three cats.

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