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Anna’s first independently published book, Where Grape Leaves Grow is a story about immigration and loss told through poetic dialogue, presented within an expressive artist's book. "Where Grape Leaves Grow" is a collaboration with designers Michelle Kuan and Emi Takahashi.
From the writer:
"If I told the story of my life exactly, some might say that it’s a story about loss. Loss of loved ones. Loss of culture. Loss of tradition. This book is not a story of loss, but a balm to heal the wound left by it.
In the second decade of my life, I lost my tayta, then my mom, and finally, my baba. Their memories were my window into Lebanon, their homeland and mine. Losing them meant losing a deep connection to our ancestry and culture. For years after their deaths, I lived behind a dark curtain, in the shadow of shame and ignorance, yearning for the opportunity I had wasted to know them. What I wanted to know more than anything was this: Who were they? Who am I?
At the same time I decided to find the answers to those two questions, I began writing this book. Where Grape Leaves Grow is the answer I thought I would never have. In this book is the story of my mom, tayta and baba’s lives, as well as a retrospective of nearly two millennia of Lebanese Maronite history—the history of my ancestors."
64 Pages,
6" X 9" Dimensions