Fireside Chat with Rim Battal and Liza Tripp
Cambridge Common House, Cambridge, MA
Admission: Free
Join author Rim Battal and translator Liza Tripp as they discuss the English release of Battal's novel I'll Look Myself in the Eyes! In this autobiographical coming of age novel, 17-year-old Rim is caught smoking out her window in her home in Marrakesh, Morocco. This minor transgression unleashes the fury of her mother who flies into a rage and demands that Rim complete a gynecological test certifying her virginity. So begins a nuanced journey into the tangled web of a patriarchal society in which various generations of women seem to complicitly preserve the status quo. Ultimately, it is Rim who breaks the cycle of dysfunction, rebels against tradition, confronts betrayal from the women closest to her, and dares to be her true self.