Liyana, a 14 year old Arab-American girl, is apprehensive about the changes that lay in store when her family decide to move to the father's native Palestine. Her romantic friendship with a Jewish boy, Omer, both complicates her discovery of her Arab heritage, and offers a note of hope and reconciliation. This is a well-written novel, with convincing characters and an acute sense of place, politics and history - it has deservedly won many awards.