I Don’t Want to Talk About Home

About the book

Powerful, fascinating and deeply moving - this book pushes aside our lazy images of human migration and refugees. I loved it.
RODDY DOYLE, author of Love

THE BESTSELLING MEMOIR - SHORTLISTED FOR THE IRISH NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR

WINNER OF THE ROONEY PRIZE FOR IRISH LITERATURE 2024

'I carry my troubled homeland within me; I hide it like a crime.'

Growing up in conservative Saudi Arabia, Suad Aldarra felt stifled by the strictures placed on women. She yearned for the vibrant Syrian streets of her family's origin. When the opportunity arose to study at Damascus University, she jumped at the chance to move to a city she loved and to experience a degree of freedom she'd never known.

But when the war started, everything changed. Suddenly Suad was thrown into a world of relentless pressure desperately looking for a way out. Her degree in software engineering was the saving grace that allowed her to travel to Ireland on a working visa. Yet reaching safety came at a price ...

I Don't Want to Talk About Home is not a memoir about war and destruction. It's not about camps or boats. It's about the enduring love for a home that ceased to exist, building a life out of the rubble, and the parts of yourself you lose and find when integrating into a new world.

Illuminating, vivid, and insightful, this is such a timely book.
LOUISE O'NEILL, author of Idol

Full of heart, honesty and hard-learnt wisdom... a captivating journey across continents, history and culture. I literally couldn't put this book down.
JAN CARSON author of The Raptures