Just Do It

Susan Muaddi Darraj

by Mickey Jou

Thu., June 7, 7:30 p.m., free, Barnes & Noble, 200 W. Route 70, Marlton, N.J., 856-225-6627, www.camden.rutgers.edu

Susan Muaddi Darraj's debut as a fiction writer has been a long time coming. She started writing "Surfacing," the first story in her new book, The Inheritance of Exile: Stories From South Philly (University of Notre Dame Press, $20), six or seven years ago. "[The character] Nadia stayed in my head for a long time," says Darraj, of the genesis of the short story collection, which focuses on four American-born young women whose parents are immigrants from the Palestinian territory.

The backdrop of the stories, she says, is drawn from her own memories of South Philadelphia, where she lived as a young girl. "South Philly is the oldest urban neighborhood in the country with a diverse racial mix," says Darraj. "A lot of people think it's an all-Italian community, but it's not. The Irish community is very strong [and so are] the Vietnamese, the African-American and the Hispanic."

Though many readers have responded to the political identity of her characters (who are mostly Palestinian Christian), Darraj says that "these [are] Arab-American women looking for their identities, but they're also looking at how other immigrants deal with cultural clashes. I think that any kind of ethnic community that has specific traditions and values — that tries to relate to American society — can relate to these stories."