Yasmeen Haddad Loves Joanasi Maqaittik

This uneven novel from writer and poet Souaid (This World We Invented) follows Yasmeen, a young woman of Syrian descent who has always wanted to travel to exotic places. Yasmeen leaves behind her family’s traditions and expectations to become a teacher in Saqijuvik, a fictional community in northern Canada. She arrives intending to make a difference, but this proves to be much harder to do than she expected. When she meets and falls in love with Joanasi, a young deejay and hunter, she believes, rather smugly, that she is genuinely becoming part of the community, and that she will stay there forever. But Joanasi has his own troubles—drinking and a semi-dormant violent streak—and eventually, Yasmeen has to make difficult decisions about who she is and what kind of life she wants. The novel demonstrates a love for the North, but the characters are flat, with Yasmeen’s coming of age dramas feeling stock and several of the men reverting to Inuit stereotype. Despite clearly aiming to wrestle with the problems caused by colonialism, the novel fails to be a serious and genuine exploration of life with the Inuit. (Nov.)