THE FOGHORN ECHOES
by Danny Ramadan
Canongate Books. 288 pages. $26.
THE FOGHORN ECHOES is an eloquent novel of physical and emotional displacement told primarily by two narrators whose demoralized voices chronicle survival as gay Muslim Arabs on opposite sides of the globe. Syrian-Canadian author Danny Ramadan begins the novel in 2003, when the American war in Iraq is rattling the Middle East. Amid the turmoil, two adolescent friends, Hussam and Wassim, begin to recognize their attraction for one another. After Hussam’s father catches them in an embrace, Wassim, in a moment of blind panic, accidently causes the death of his friend’s father. Several years later, the Syrian War is raging and the young men are living with Wassim’s family when Wassim’s father catches them together, this time in a loving moment of post-coital bliss. Enraged, he banishes Hussam and forces Wassim into an arranged marriage.
Thomas Keith’s writing has appeared in American Theatre, The Drouth, and Studies in Scottish Literature.
