Carryout by Hasan Dudar

"A portrait of the artist as a young man and a portrait of community in diaspora, this debut is as funny and tender and vibrant as the remarkable family at its center. In the grand tradition of writers like Vladimir Nabokov and Aleksandar Hemon, Dudar brings places to life with brilliant originality while also bringing to life the existential experience of displacement. Carryout is as exhilarating as it is necessary."--Harriet Clark, author, The Hill

"Carryout is a reflection on refugees' struggles to build a new life in the United States. Dudar doesn't paint a rosy picture of either the old or new country, but he does give us a tender understanding of each land and its people."--Delinda C. Hanley, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.

In the late 1970s, Ziad Idilbi, a Palestinian refugee from Lebanon, marries Salma, a Lebanese refugee escaping the war in Beirut. Resolving to start over for the very last time, the couple opens a corner store in Toledo, Ohio, across from the General Motors factory, where Toledo's Arab community intermingles with the working class. Over the decades, whether it's bigotry (pre- and post-9/11), financial ruin, or terminal illness, the Idilbis find themselves on life's outskirts, attempting to build something new.

Achingly poignant and slyly funny, the linked stories in Carryout follow the Idilbis and their children as they teeter on the brink of catastrophe. Walid, the youngest child of Ziad and Salma, navigates the heartbreaks of youth as well as the colorful characters who haunt his parents' corner store. As he grows up into a writer, Walid's gaze fixes on his father and the long shadow of displacement and occupation. Mustafa, the eldest son, is forever trying to outrun the disasters that seem to seek him out, while Nawal, the only daughter, is dumped by a friend and hatches a scheme to win her back. Unsure whether to run toward each other or away from each other, the characters in Dudar's exquisite debut suffer the absurdities and indignities of life in America with wry obstinance and striking wisdom.

Read the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs review here! 

Hasan Dudar is from Toledo, Ohio, and lives in Washington, DC. Carryout is his first book of fiction.

Paperback 

2026