The Arrogant Years: One Girl's Search for Her Lost Youth, from Cairo to Brooklyn - Paperback

by Lucette Lagnado (Author)

"[Lagnado writes] in crystalline yet melodious prose."
--New York Times

Lucette Lagnado's acclaimed, award-winning The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit ("[a] crushing, brilliant book" --New York Times Book Review) told the powerfully moving story of her Jewish family's exile from Egypt. In her extraordinary follow-up memoir, The Arrogant Years, Lagnado revisits her first years in America, and describes a difficult coming-of-age tragically interrupted by a bout with cancer at age 16. At once a poignant mother and daughter story and a magnificent snapshot of the turbulent '60s and '70s, The Arrogant Years is a stunning work of memory and resilience that ranges from Cairo to Brooklyn and beyond--the unforgettable true story of a remarkable young woman's determination to push past the boundaries of her life and make her way in the wider world.

Front Jacket

In the follow-up to her beloved, bestselling The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit, Lagnado tells the story of her mother, Edith, coming of age in a magical old Cairo of dusty alleyways and grand villas. Then Lagnado revisits her own years in America--as a schoolgirl in Brooklyn's immigrant enclaves, where she dreams of becoming the fearless Mrs. Emma Peel of The Avengers, coming of age in the turbulence of New York City's 1970s, and, later, as an avenging reporter for some of America's most prestigious newspapers. Not only a searing account of strangers in a strange land, The Arrogant Years is a lasting meditation on exile and assimilation, feminism and the enduring ties of family. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Back Jacket

In the follow-up to her beloved, bestselling The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit, Lagnado tells the story of her mother, Edith, coming of age in a magical old Cairo of dusty alleyways and grand villas. Then Lagnado revisits her own years in America--as a schoolgirl in Brooklyn's immigrant enclaves, where she dreams of becoming the fearless Mrs. Emma Peel of The Avengers, coming of age in the turbulence of New York City's 1970s, and, later, as an "avenging" reporter for some of America's most prestigious newspapers. Not only a searing account of strangers in a strange land, The Arrogant Years is a lasting "meditation on exile and assimilation, feminism and the enduring ties of family." (San Francisco Chronicle)