I, the Divine: A Novel in First Chapters

Named after the actress Sarah Bernhardt, red-haired Sarah Nour El-Din attempts to tell her life story through multiple narrative approaches—sometimes as memoir, sometimes as novel—each version intentionally incomplete. Raised in a hybrid family marked by divorce and remarriage, and shaped by Beirut during wartime, Sarah eventually settles in self-imposed exile in the United States. Sarah's life is fragmented and broken, told through shifting perspectives that reveal different layers of her humanity. She finds stability through her best friend, her grown son, occasional sensual pleasures, and her commitment to narrating her own experience. Her extraordinary dignity emerges across these varied tellings, which together form a portrait that is both moving and memorable. The novel includes a reading group guide.