JEDDAH: Following the international success of “As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow,” Syrian-Canadian author Zoulfa Katouh, who was raised between Dubai and Switzerland, returns with “The Ocean Would Paint Me Blue,” following Jihad Dabbagh, a Syrian-American girl who loses her ability to see color in the wake of her mother’s sudden death.
While her debut brought the devastation of war and displacement to young readers’ attention, Katouh’s new young adult fiction depicts the emotional reality of being a Syrian child trying to grow up under the weight of prejudice in a contemporary American context.
Grief-stricken and increasingly isolated, with a married sister who has moved away and a father who has retreated into his own grief, Jihad turns to a rediscovered heirloom, a sketchbook that seems to hold something magical.
She starts using it to paint “miraculous murals” all over New York that resurrect her mother’s life in Syria, returning color to her world one painting at a time.
Tensions arise when she is transferred to the elite, overwhelmingly white Braxton Academy for her senior year. Jihad finds her hijab and her name turned into targets by classmates who treat her faith and identity with suspicion.
