Homesick Mosque

by Reza Jalali

While he walked on the dim path next to the donkey carrying Zarin,Musa pondered his new fate. In the distance, the tall dark mountainsstood with their jagged tops, puncturing the blue-black sky. With afresh sadness, Musa reflected that on the Iranian side of the same highhillsthe town where he was born, got married, and ran into troublewith the secret policewas also waking to a new day. He figured that,for years to come, probably till he died, he would miss the place and itspeople as he would move farther away, in opposite direction, with moremountains and oceans in between, to separate himself from his home.As they climbed a knoll, Musa stopped to survey a cluster of mudhomes in a beehive-like village, surrounded by patches of brown wheatand barley fields, farther ahead. To his side, the donkey, with itshead down and the beads jingling, blinked its long eyelashes to keepthe unseen flies away. The tall plane trees, their tops touched by theglowing sun, stood solid like a wall. Somewhere in the still dawn, a manfrom an invisible minaret called the faithful to pray. A pair of hoopoesflew over their heads, heading east for the high hills. Musa watchedthem with a sudden longing. Excerpts from The Gravedigger.

84 pages, Paperback

First published November 13, 2013

About the author

Reza Jalali, who wrote the foreword for New Mainers, is a writer and community organizer. Originally from Iran, Jalali, who holds an MFA, has taught at the University of Southern Maine and Bangor Theological Seminary.He's an administrator at the university of Southern Maine and is the author of award-winning children's book, Moon Watchers. His latest book, Homesick Mosque, a collection of short stories, is about Muslim immigrants in the post-9/11 America.

Reviews

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book very much. While reading, I felt like I was observing as well as hearing each narrator's story. The stories are of individuals from Iran, Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan living in post 9/11 America. Through glimpses into episodes in their lives, readers experience the tentative and careful lives led by people navigating life in a country not their own from birth. While finding their place and building a life in America, they are sometimes longing for their homeland, people or places they left behind, cultural understanding or tolerance.
They seem to always be navigating and working toward a continuity of their own unique life and away from seeing their life as a Iranian then American or Pakistani then American etc., but as an individual's single life lived on different continents and under different circumstances. They are reconciling their personal histories and personal hopes with present circumstances.