The New Belly Dancer of the Galaxy

The story features Kahlil Gibran Hourani, a bumbling Syrian American optician grappling with existential questions as he approaches his fifty-third birthday. His journey takes a surreal turn when his sardonic dead grandmother, Situe, appears in his dreams, prompting a series of misadventures, including a wrongful suspicion of terrorism. This darkly comic narrative blends myth and magical realism, offering a sharp critique of race, constitutional rights, and the complexities of Arab American identity in a post-9/11 context.