The Servant

Faten’s happy life in her village comes to an abrupt end when her father arranges for her to work as a servant for a wealthy Beirut couple with two spoiled daughters. What does a bright, ambitious seventeen-year-old do when she is suddenly deprived of her friends, family, education and freedom?

Fatima Sharafeddine is an award-winning Lebanese writer who has twice been nominated for the prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. She was born in Beirut and spent her early childhood in Sierra Leone. Her family returned to Lebanon when she was still a child, and she spent fifteen years living through the Lebanese civil war. After receiving a B.A. in Early Childhood Education, she moved to the United States to pursue her graduate studies. She earned a Masters degree in education and another in Arabic literature. She has taught preschool in Houston, and Arabic language and culture classes at Rice University.