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The Measure of Distance: An Immigrant Novel
They went to Cairo, leaving behind the adobe houses built along the edge of the Nile and the villagers who all knew each other and who had lived on this land for more centuries than their names could count. Behind them, they left the imprint of their footsteps for others who might follow.
This family saga begins when Salim, the eldest of three brothers, moves to Cairo at the start of the twentieth century with dreams of opening his own bakery. His decision to leave his ancestral village of Kom Ombo despite his parents’ objections reverberates across generations, kicking off a series of migrations that shape the lives of his family and their descendants throughout the decades that follow. These migrations only intensify after the revolution of 1952—with Misha, Salim’s eldest grandchild, being the first to flee to “Amreeka,” his annual phone calls home becoming briefer and briefer with each passing year.
Culminating with the 2011 protests in Tahrir Square, Pauline Kaldas’s The Measure of Distance is a detailed portrait of immigration against the backdrop of an Egypt in constant flux and an America that is always falling short of the fantasy. Alternating between tales of those who migrate and those who stay, this expansive novel follows its characters as they determine the course of their lives, often choosing one uncertainty over another as they migrate to new lands or plant their roots more firmly in their homeland.
This family saga begins when Salim, the eldest of three brothers, moves to Cairo at the start of the twentieth century with dreams of opening his own bakery. His decision to leave his ancestral village of Kom Ombo despite his parents’ objections reverberates across generations, kicking off a series of migrations that shape the lives of his family and their descendants throughout the decades that follow. These migrations only intensify after the revolution of 1952—with Misha, Salim’s eldest grandchild, being the first to flee to “Amreeka,” his annual phone calls home becoming briefer and briefer with each passing year.
Culminating with the 2011 protests in Tahrir Square, Pauline Kaldas’s The Measure of Distance is a detailed portrait of immigration against the backdrop of an Egypt in constant flux and an America that is always falling short of the fantasy. Alternating between tales of those who migrate and those who stay, this expansive novel follows its characters as they determine the course of their lives, often choosing one uncertainty over another as they migrate to new lands or plant their roots more firmly in their homeland.
- GenresFiction
230 pages, Paperback
Published September 4, 2023
About the author
Pauline Kaldas
11 books12 followersPauline Kaldas is an Egyptian-American novelist, scholar and professor.
She was born in Egypt and immigrated with her parents to the United States at the age of eight in 1969. She spent her first eight years in the Cairo suburb of Mohandessein with her parents, grandmother, and aunt. When her family immigrated, they settled in the Boston area.
She attended Clark University in Worcester, MA, where she majored in English and Business. She went on to receive her M.A. in English at the University of Michigan and her Ph.D. in English and Creative Writing at Binghamton University.
After receiving her M.A., she moved to Providence, RI, where she taught at Rhode Island College and Rhode Island School of Design. In 1990, she went to Egypt with her husband, T.J. Anderson III, and they spent three years teaching at the American University in Cairo. Those three years gave her the opportunity to re-connect with her family and immerse herself into her culture. It was a period of intense artistic and personal growth. She returned to Egypt again in 2002 with her husband and two daughters for six months when her husband was awarded a Fulbright to teach at Cairo University. Their most recent trip to Egypt was in 2010.
She is the author of The Measure of Distance, a novel (University of Arkansas Press), Looking Both Ways, a collection of essays (Cune Press, 2017), The Time Between Places, a collection of short stories (University of Arkansas Press, 2010), Letters from Cairo, a travel memoir (Syracuse University Press, 2007), and Egyptian Compass, a collection of poetry (WordTech Communications, 2006). She also co-edited with Khaled Mattawa Dinarzad’s Children: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Literature (University of Arkansas Press, 2009). She was awarded a fellowship in fiction from the Virginia Commission of the Arts and has been in residency at the MacDowell Colony and the Virginia Center for the Arts.
Pauline Kaldas is currently Professor of English and Creative Writing at Hollins University in Roanoke, VA.
She was born in Egypt and immigrated with her parents to the United States at the age of eight in 1969. She spent her first eight years in the Cairo suburb of Mohandessein with her parents, grandmother, and aunt. When her family immigrated, they settled in the Boston area.
She attended Clark University in Worcester, MA, where she majored in English and Business. She went on to receive her M.A. in English at the University of Michigan and her Ph.D. in English and Creative Writing at Binghamton University.
After receiving her M.A., she moved to Providence, RI, where she taught at Rhode Island College and Rhode Island School of Design. In 1990, she went to Egypt with her husband, T.J. Anderson III, and they spent three years teaching at the American University in Cairo. Those three years gave her the opportunity to re-connect with her family and immerse herself into her culture. It was a period of intense artistic and personal growth. She returned to Egypt again in 2002 with her husband and two daughters for six months when her husband was awarded a Fulbright to teach at Cairo University. Their most recent trip to Egypt was in 2010.
She is the author of The Measure of Distance, a novel (University of Arkansas Press), Looking Both Ways, a collection of essays (Cune Press, 2017), The Time Between Places, a collection of short stories (University of Arkansas Press, 2010), Letters from Cairo, a travel memoir (Syracuse University Press, 2007), and Egyptian Compass, a collection of poetry (WordTech Communications, 2006). She also co-edited with Khaled Mattawa Dinarzad’s Children: An Anthology of Contemporary Arab American Literature (University of Arkansas Press, 2009). She was awarded a fellowship in fiction from the Virginia Commission of the Arts and has been in residency at the MacDowell Colony and the Virginia Center for the Arts.
Pauline Kaldas is currently Professor of English and Creative Writing at Hollins University in Roanoke, VA.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 10, 2024
Beautiful book about family, love, and the promise - and cost - of migration. Migration runs through so many of our family stories and therefore our family relationships; Dr. Kaldas takes the personal and shows its painful, luminous universality.
November 16, 2024
Promising but by halfway through the bookbecame tedious
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews