Because we are somewhere else

Because We Are Elsewhere is a novel in which author Rasha Khayat portrays the clash of cultures. It tells the story of Layla and Basil, siblings of Arab and German descent, who share the author's own experiences of hardship in exile. Layla suddenly decides to leave Germany and move to her father's homeland in Saudi Arabia. She then shocks her brother Basil and their mother by inviting them to her wedding to a Saudi man, especially after Basil travels to Saudi Arabia and witnesses the extent of her intellectual transformation. Meanwhile, when Basil meets his father's family, he longs for the childhood days he spent with them in Saudi Arabia. Rasha Khayat raises several complex questions about the division of families due to multicultural identities from both East and West. Should one culture dominate the other, or is it better to find a balance between them? It is a novel about the cultural conflicts within a society.