The novel follows the stories of refugees, an American town and Luma, a Jordanian Woman, who all eventually cross paths in the small town of Clarkston, Georgia. The book describes the struggles they all face when the town has an influx of refugees from other countries creating tensions as cultures collide and the face of the town completely changes. The first chapter begins by introducing Luma, a Jordanian Woman born into a wealthy westernized family in Amman, Jordan. She attended American Community School where she was able to escape the conservative Muslim society and was able to play sports. She stood out to her coaches particularly Rhonda Brown who she disliked. However she soon realized she wanted to play well for her and she later volunteered …show more content…
They built apartment complexes in town and the population doubled as middle class whites moved in. The working class began to move into the apartment complex and created separate worlds economically and socially. Once whites began to leave crime surged and landlords filled the complex with government housing programs and the apartments caught itself in urban decay. Refugee organizations noticed the town as ripe for resettlement of refugees and in late 1980’s through early 1990’s refuges from Southeast Asia began to settle in the area. By 2000 one third of Clarkston population was foreign born and the typical southern town completely changed. The residents of the town noticed that change from one day to another as Rita Thomas said “You wake up one morning and there it is.” The town represents a changing demographic across the nation and became one of the most diverse communities in the nation. Violent events and the discrimination the refuges felt they faced caused tensions to rise and led to the old residents to shut themselves into their home and ignore the problems. In a meeting the refugee agencies were surprised to see the negative reaction to the refugee’s from the town’s old