Too Soon, Betty Shamieh
Too Soon, Betty Shamieh
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Too Soon

Author: Betty Shamieh

Narrator: Betty Shamieh, Jacqueline Antaramian, Lameece Issaq

Unabridged: 12 hr 35 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/28/2025

Categories: Fiction, Women, Feminist


Synopsis

“Fiercely funny, sexy, and culturally resonant.” —People, Best Books of the Month • “Shamieh balances her characters’ painful family history and their boisterously funny voices.” —The New Yorker

A “wonderfully brash and sparkling” (Oprah Daily, Best Books of the Year) novel that explores exile, love, and freedom across three generations of women—“a Palestinian American Sex and the City” (The Atlantic).

Arabella gets an unexpected chance at love when she’s thrust into a conflict and history she’s tried to avoid all her life.

Zoya is playing matchmaker for her last unmarried granddaughter and stirring up buried memories.

Naya is keeping a secret from her children that will change all their lives.

Thirty-five-year-old Arabella, a New York theatre director whose dating and career prospects are drying up, is offered an opportunity to direct a risqué cross-dressing interpretation of a Shakespeare classic—that might garner international attention—in the West Bank. Her mother, Naya, and grandmother, Zoya, hatch a plot to match her with Aziz, a Palestinian American doctor volunteering in Gaza. Arabella agrees to meet Aziz, since her growing feelings for Yoav, a celebrated Israeli American theatre designer, seem destined for disaster...

With biting hilarity, Too Soon introduces us to a trio of bold and unforgettable voices. This dramatic saga follows one family’s epic journey fleeing war-torn Jaffa in 1948, chasing the American Dream in Detroit and San Francisco in the sixties and seventies, hustling in the New York theatre scene post-9/11, and daring to stage a show in Palestine in 2012. Upon learning one of them is living on borrowed time, the three women fight to live, make art, and love on their own terms. A funny, sexy, and heart-wrenching literary debut, Too Soon illuminates our shared history and asks, how can we set ourselves free?

About Betty Shamieh

Betty Shamieh (she/her) is a Palestinian American writer and the author of fifteen plays. She is the playwright-in-residence at the Classical Theatre of Harlem. Her six New York play premieres include the sold-out off-Broadway runs of Roar and Malvolio, a sequel to Twelfth Night, which were both New York Times Critic’s Picks. Shamieh was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and named a UNESCO Young Artist for Intercultural Dialogue. She is a founding artistic director of The Semitic Root, a collective that supports innovative theatre cocreated by Arab and Jewish Americans. A graduate of Harvard College and the Yale School of Drama, she lives with her family in San Francisco. 


Reviews

Goodreads review by Mary on September 15, 2024

In Too Soon we meet Arabella, 35 and a theater director in New York who is waiting to make her big break on Broadway. But she has the lingering feeling she’s slowly missing the train to motherhood and wondering if that’s a path she even wants to explore. When an opportunity arises to direct a play i......more

Goodreads review by blake on February 10, 2025

This book has everything it needs to be exceptional—razor-sharp writing, a captivating plot, and deeply evocative settings that bring each timeline to life. Shamieh’s storytelling is both confronting and thought-provoking, challenging my understanding of diaspora while illuminating universal truths......more

Goodreads review by Shannon on February 26, 2025

This was a moving dual timeline, dual POV story of one family of non-Jewish Palestinian exiles who are forced out of their country and emigrate to America. Told from New York City playwright Arabella's point of view and that of her grandmother Zoya's, we get to see what life was like for women tryin......more

Goodreads review by Nadia on February 09, 2025

More like 2.75ish? The main character says repeatedly she doesn’t care about “the Palestinian struggle,” so tbh I was probably just not the target audience as someone who has been directly impacted by the apartheid states violence, the main characters nonstop flippancy about activists felt like a pe......more

Goodreads review by jocelyn • coolgalreading on May 08, 2025

this is a strong 3 for me. i didn't like the dual timeline in this one (i love dual timelines but something has to click for me), but i absolutely adored arabella's timeline and her voice.......more


Quotes

"Betty Shamieh portrays Arabella, a New York City director descended from a long line of Palestinian women. Grandmother Zoya and daughter Naya are performed by Jacqueline Antaramian and Lameece Issaq. The women passionately share how their traditions provide strength in the face of adversity. Together, they pour out these characters’ stories with humor, sarcasm, and respect for a family’s traumatic history. The story begins with their immigration to America in the late 1940s, as described by matriarch Zoya; moves to daughter Naya’s rocky adjustments to life in a new country; and then illuminates American-born granddaughter Arabella’s reconnection with her roots. As the story proceeds, the narrators depict the characters’ pride of heritage and tradition, as well as a deeper perspective on the history of Palestine."

"Betty Shamieh portrays Arabella, a New York City director descended from a long line of Palestinian women. Grandmother Zoya and daughter Naya are performed by Jacqueline Antaramian and Lameece Issaq. The women passionately share how their traditions provide strength in the face of adversity. Together, they pour out these characters’ stories with humor, sarcasm, and respect for a family’s traumatic history. The story begins with their immigration to America in the late 1940s, as described by matriarch Zoya; moves to daughter Naya’s rocky adjustments to life in a new country; and then illuminates American-born granddaughter Arabella’s reconnection with her roots. As the story proceeds, the narrators depict the characters’ pride of heritage and tradition, as well as a deeper perspective on the history of Palestine."