The Servant in Around the World in 80 Books

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Apr 23, 2013 Kimberly rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2013-bookshelf, library-books-read-2013, ya, 2013-around-the-world-challenge, lebanon, contemporary-ya

Back in December and January I signed up for many (too many) reading challenges and as per usual I am drastically behind especially with my Middle Eastern Reading Challenge which is why when I saw that my library had The Servant I had to read it.

The Servant was a really wonderful coming of age story about a young Lebanese girl named Faten working in Beirut during the late 1980's during a turbulent time in the city's history. Faten is a maid for a family but dreams of bigger and better things for Back in December and January I signed up for many (too many) reading challenges and as per usual I am drastically behind especially with my Middle Eastern Reading Challenge which is why when I saw that my library had The Servant I had to read it.

The Servant was a really wonderful coming of age story about a young Lebanese girl named Faten working in Beirut during the late 1980's during a turbulent time in the city's history. Faten is a maid for a family but dreams of bigger and better things for herself and wants to be a nurse. Unfortunately her father forces her to work and takes all her pay leaving her stuck as the lives of others seem to pass her buy in her two years of servitude.

I really enjoyed this book because I love reading novels no matter the genre set in different places and this was the first book I've ever read set in Beirut and it won't be my last. There is such a sense of hope in Faten's story and I really connected to her as a character. I hated the way she was treated as a servant not as a human being but I loved how strong she was and how determined she was to get her education even if it got her into trouble I liked how the novel ended. It definitely ended on a brighter note and there was a lightness to it that was absent in the beginning.

This was definitely Faten's story and she was the main character and the most developed out of the rest of the cast of characters and I just wish they also had a little more substance which is why I did not give this book 5 stars. I enjoyed seeing Faten grow and become a strong independent young woman and thought her story was inspirational.

The writing is what surprised me most since I'm not usually a fan of shorter novels but author Fatima Sharafeddine created such a realistic story I was very drawn to the story. While the book was a short and quick read it did pack a punch and there was a lot of skill demonstrated in the way the author chose to tell her story.

Overall, this is probably one of the best YA books I've read this year. It was a nice change to read a book set somewhere else in the world and see life through another persons eyes during a hard time in history. Plus I loved learning about a culture that while I'm not totally unfamiliar with still has some mysteries for me and I enjoyed being exposed to it through reading Faten's story.

I would highly recommend this book to fans of contemporary young adult fiction that is set in a unique place with a strong heroine and a story about discovering one's own sense of self. ...more

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Jan 24, 2014 Christina rated it liked it

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Around the World in 80 Books