AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
There's nothing like the relationship between sisters. Arguments, laughter, resentment, love - all of this and more can happen between sisters in just the span of an hour. That's true for Rama and Leena, two girls in the new novel-in-verse "Sisters Alone."
SHIFA SALTAGI SAFADI: (Reading) Now Mama alive only within my scrapbook. Now I wish I could go back, erase, fix what I did six months ago.
RASCOE: That's Shifa Saltagi Safadi reading as Leena, the younger sister. She joins us now to talk about sisters alone. Welcome to the program.
SAFADI: Thank you for having me.
RASCOE: Tell us about these two girls, Rama and Leena. What's their relationship like?
SAFADI: Leena is in sixth grade, and Rama is in eighth grade. And they are definitely two very opposing personalities. Leena's very creative. She's a little bit forgetful, the younger sister that feels a little not as capable as her older sister. And Rama is this type-A elder-sister personality who is very focused, very perfectionist. And they're both reeling with the sudden loss of their mother. And so the sisters, through the span of the story, have to grapple with this grief and also grapple with their fractured relationship and figure out how to meet in the middle.
RASCOE: We heard a little of Leena's sadness in your reading.
SAFADI: Yes.
RASCOE: Rama is dealing with sadness and grief, but she feels like she has to take care of her younger sister.
SAFADI: Yeah.
RASCOE: Is that at the root of her frustration with Leena?
SAFADI: Absolutely. I mean, she's very much frustrated with her younger sister messing up. And she feels that pressure of, you know, needing to be perfect while grappling with her own internal anxiety. Because of that, she is frustrated that Leena's allowed to mess up, but she feels like she isn't.
RASCOE: And Leena - she's very preoccupied with making this scrapbook with pictures of her mother, and she's still a child. Why does she feel responsible for her mother's death, and not just that, but also keeping the memory of her mother alive?
SAFADI: Leena definitely blames herself a lot for her mother's death because of the fact that her mom died on the way back from her swim meet to try to get something for Leena that she forgot at home. So Leena feels like, you know, it was my fault. She also feels like this is why Rama doesn't like her. And so the scrapbook is, in a way, a sort of coping mechanism to try to remember her mother, but also her way of fixing that relationship. And because of that, she dwells so much on the past.
RASCOE: You know, there's a school trip that coincides with an overseas work trip that their father has to take, but a mix-up leaves the girls at home alone. But they refuse to tell him or any other adult what happened.
SAFADI: Yes.
RASCOE: Why do you think that is?
SAFADI: You know, with their mother gone, Rama definitely feels that pressure of stepping a little bit into her mom's shoes and trying to take care of everything. And that pressure has parentified her, for sure. So she feels like, OK. We don't want to admit it to anyone 'cause then we'd have to face it. You know, my dad might come back from his work trip. He might cancel it. It might affect his job. She doesn't want to admit that she hasn't been kind or looking out for her sister.
So both of them don't fully deal with everything honestly at the beginning of the story. They both repress their feelings, repress, you know, their emotions. You know, for the reader, it really shows how that can lead to more mess-ups because they do, in fact, face much more strenuous circumstances because of the fact that they did not ask for help.
RASCOE: Why did you decide to kind of tackle these very heavy things through the eyes of these children?
SAFADI: You know, I think sometimes as an adult myself and as a mom, as a former middle school teacher, we tend to view children as not experiencing life to the fullest like we do sometimes. But, you know, they feel life just as strongly, if not more. These girls go through a blizzard, and they experience grief. They experience struggles. So my hope is that readers will see themselves and also will know that, you know, you can survive, that you can have agency in your situation and move forward and hope for better days.
RASCOE: This is a Muslim family.
SAFADI: Yes.
RASCOE: The faith of these girls comfort them. But there are also parts of it where it seems like it sets them apart from some of their peers.
SAFADI: So for Rama and Leena, and very much for myself, being Muslim is part of our identity. It helps their feelings when they're feeling alone. But it also - for Rama, especially, you know, when she sees her best friend making a new friend, she is sort of feeling, like, left out because this new friend doesn't have - happen to be a Muslim friend. And it makes her grapple with it. And so you kind of see her having to figure out how to deal with things that don't go her way.
RASCOE: The father does lean pretty heavily on Rama.
SAFADI: Yes.
RASCOE: Did you feel like he leaned too much on her?
SAFADI: I do think he does lean extra than he should. I think part of it is because he's single-dadding his way through parenting these kids, and he's, you know, lost his wife. So he's definitely at a place where he's not thinking fully clearly. He's definitely a flawed character as well. But I think it comes from a good place. You know, for him, he's treating her with this respect and this trust. And he doesn't know what's going on with her. So, you know, at the end of the story, he has realized what this has done to her and that there are better days where, you know, he'll be able to help her more and take that kind of pressure off.
RASCOE: And, Shifa, you have daughters and a sister. How did you think about your own relationships and your daughter's relationship with each other when you were writing this story?
SAFADI: I'm the older sister, the type A, you know, wanting my sister to do everything on my terms. There's five years between us, so I guess she's not so little anymore, but she will always be my little sister. And I'm so protective over her until now. And we have such a close bond, but it took a long time. I have three daughters, and it's so interesting because they all are such different personalities. And they also have a lot of bickering, but they also love each other so fiercely. Even the way they bicker is funny because you'll see that it's very much rooted in love.
You know, through Rama and Leena's relationship, I wanted to portray that - that even in those moments where they're fighting, Rama leaves ketchup out for Leena. She still makes dinner for her, you know, even when she's angry. And I see that. I see that in my relationship with my sister and my kids' relationships, is the love never goes away, even with the complexity of the relationship.
RASCOE: That's Shifa Saltagi Safadi. Her new novel is "Sisters Alone." Thank you so much for speaking with us.
SAFADI: Thank you for having me.
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