Review
Origin is a dramatic change
of course for Abu-Jaber, previously known for her
lightly humorous Arab-American culinary love stories
Arabian Jazz and
Crescent, and for her memoir,
The
Language of Baklava. In
Origin she takes
leave of her roots to craft a darkly poetic,
literary mystery set in a cold Syracuse winter, with
nary a recipe in sight.
Lena has an extraordinarily heightened sense of
smell and a highly developed intuition that allows
her to sense things that others miss. Working as a
fingerprint expert in the Syracuse crime lab, she is
drawn into a mysterious series of crib deaths. At
first they are written off as SIDS (Sudden Infant
Death Syndrome); however, Lena senses that something...
Beyond the Book
Children raised by animals?
In
Origins, Lena believes she
spent her early years in the
jungle being raised by apes,
which begs the question, are
there any real cases of children
being raised by animals? You
will find the answer at
feralchildren.com which has
collated a number of claims and
attempts to separate fact from
fiction.
Mirror-touch synesthesia
Lana is able to sense things
that others can't, such as the
emotional residue left in a...
