I Sat Alone by the Gate

Own Voices

How wonderful, that you could cross the ocean and stillnd yourself looking at mothers and children walking the streets, peering into store windows, and catching buses to get home in time for dinner.

Maryam, a young woman from Baku, Azerbaijan, is thrown into the chaos of immigrant life when her mother decides to emigrate to the United States. Maryam initially remains inside at her window studying passersby and re ecting on their clothes, their co ee cups, and a hundred other points of divergence between two cultures. But reality eventually forces her from of the safety of her apartment and out into a foreign world that is at once fascinating, confusing and not always kind.

While rst a story of immigration, I Sat Alone by the Gate is also a powerful, introspective tale of a young woman coming into her own. Mary Efendi’s tender portrayal of home will appeal to anyone who has ever had to leave the place they love behind.

“Deeply felt and acutely observed, Mary Efendi’s rst novel is a sensitive exploration of departure and arrival, as nostalgia for home struggles with the need to belong. An admirable, impressive debut.”

—Navtej Sarna, former diplomat and author of Crimson Spring and other works

“Quiet but entrancing, elegant but passionate, witty and oddly melancholic. A wonderful debut.”

—Mahbod Seraji, author of Rooftops of Tehran