When a Camel Breaks Your Heart

by Kodi Scheer

In this haunting and fabulist tale, a young woman’s would-be fiancé, Mahir, transforms—quite literally—into a camel.
Mahir—once the object of her affection and muse for her art—now embodies the vast differences between their respective backgrounds as a white American woman and a first-generation American Muslim. She attempts to uncover the mystery of his transformation, sorting through their past, trying to understand the present, and coming to terms with the future—all while dealing with the practical needs of the large exotic animal nesting in her living room.

Set against the backdrop of the American invasion of Iraq, the story weaves together the magical and the mundane, with a dose of wry humor and the absurd, building toward a surprising ending.

Genres: Fantasy

20 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 5, 2013

About the author

Kodi Scheer teaches writing at the University of Michigan, where she earned her MFA. She was awarded the Dzanc Prize for Excellence in Literary Fiction and Community Service. As a recent fellow of the Sozopol Fiction Seminars, she traveled to Bulgaria to engage with an international community of writers, translators, and readers. Her stories have appeared or are forthcoming in The Chicago Tribune, The Iowa Review, The Florida Review, Quarterly West, and Bellevue Literary Review. She also serves as writer-in-residence for the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a sharply-observed and gorgeously-written tale of what it means to love another and to fall into exoticism of that person at the same time. The protagonist's pain at the loss of the ideal "blended" relationship she had hoped for is acute, and becomes a wonderfully thought-provoking, unsentimental thread wound through the very real tragedy of losing the lover she knew. The fantasy element of the story is dark and engrossing, the descriptions of the characters' everyday working lives convincing and authentic. Perhaps most importantly, the characters are treated--despite their bizarre circumstances--with honest compassion.

A beautiful and humane read. I recommend this story widely and will remember it for a long time.

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look at the cultural gulf that can exist in even the closest relationships.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yup your reading this right, even camel's can create a divide- in the human heart. The narrator of this 20 page story was once a man named Mahir, who one morning find's himself on his fiance's futon in a less comfortable form, - a camel. Humorous to say the least - yet the bulk of this story shares/illustrates the ties that bind and the ties that break -between a white American woman and a first-generation American Muslim.

Part love story, part human story and yes part camel story, - like none I have read before and will mostly likely never encounter to soon again.
And though one might say the whole preface for the book itself is a surprise, wait till you read the ending.

[Eman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt like the universe was daring me to read this. I think it missed some of the complexity of Muslim-American identity after 9/11, although it tried hard to empathize. The changing-nature-of-love-story aspect reminded me of other stories that have affected me more, that one by Jhumpa Lahiri and that one by Aimee Bender ...

[Jaqi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short story about a woman whose middle eastern lover turns into a camel overnight, and her disbelieving reaction. Underwhelming.