A Saltwater Requiem

A masterpiece of historical fiction, this commanding portrayal of love, war, and transformation is told through the dissolution of one Syrian family left to the mercy of global and personal events, culminating in their quest to reach the New World on the doomed RMS Titanic Family patriarch Tanios lords over his successful farm as head of the wealthiest family in Saidnaya. Their downfall begins on the day of the extravagant wedding of his eldest son, Elias, to the town beauty, Hind, when Elias is forcibly conscripted by the Ottoman army for the Hijaz Railway project. Clinging to the hope of his son's return, Tanios struggles to keep his fortunes afloat. As the horrors of the Ottoman occupation draw closer and closer to their farm, the family is forced to abandon their beloved homeland, willing to leave everything behind to build a better life. Embarking on this reluctant journey, which will take them first to France and then to England, their tensions, secrets, and agendas bubble up from below the surface. Matriarch Nazira endures her husband's descent into alcoholism while attempting to keep up appearances in the face of the family's waning influence.