Book Summary and Reviews of Waseem by Lilas Taha

Waseem by Lilas Taha

Waseem

A Novel

by Lilas Taha

  • Published:
  • Sep 2025, 312 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of a doomed love and a young man's education in hope.

In the crowded, streets of a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, Waseem has learned to navigate life with quiet resilience. Born with a disability that leaves him largely unable to speak or walk, Waseem's world is shaped by the small, intimate details of camp life.

For years, Waseem has shared a deep, unspoken bond with Ameena, his best friend and the girl he has silently loved from afar. Ameena, a fierce and compassionate spirit, has always been there for Waseem, supporting him through every challenge. The friendship is both fueled and challenged by their secret ambition––to travel to Palestine, their beloved but unreachable ancestral home.

Waseem is in turn a tear-wrenching and hilarious journey of friendship, love, and exile. It explores the intersections of physical and emotional healing, and the resilience of the human spirit in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. Waseem's story is one of determination and transformation—a testament to the power of love and the unbreakable connection to one's roots, no matter how distant they may seem.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

Media reviews not yet available.

This information about Waseem was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Click here and be the first to review this book!

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Author Information

Lilas Taha

Lilas Taha is a writer at heart, an engineer by training, and an advocate for domestic abuse victims by choice. She was born in Kuwait to a Syrian mother and a Palestinian father, and immigrated to the U.S. as a result of the Gulf war in 1990.

She earned a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Kuwait university and a master's degree in Human Factors Engineering from the University of Wisconsin- Madison. There, Lilas met her beloved husband and true friend, and moved with him to Texas to start a family. She is the proud mother of a daughter and a son. Instead of working in an industrial field, she applied herself to the field of social safety, working with victims of domestic violence.

Pursuing her true passion for creative writing, Lilas brings her professional interest and Middle Eastern background together in her novels.

More Author Information

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked Waseem, try these:

  • Everything Inside jacket

    Everything Inside

    by Edwidge Danticat

    Published 2020

    About this book

    From the internationally acclaimed, best-selling author of Brother, I'm Dying, a collection of vividly imagined stories about community, family, and love.

  • We Own the Sky jacket

    We Own the Sky

    by Luke Allnutt

    Published 2019

    About this book

    A triumphant story about love, loss and finding hope - against all odds.

  • No One is Here Except All of Us jacket

    No One is Here Except All of Us

    by Ramona Ausubel

    Published 2013

    About this book

    A beguiling, imaginative, inspiring story about the bigness of being alive as an individual, as a member of a tribe, and as a participant in history, exploring how we use storytelling to survive and shape our own truths.

We have 10 read-alikes for Waseem, but non-members are limited to three results. Join free to see the complete list of recommendations.
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes

More Literary Fiction

Browse all Literary Fiction books

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
When No One Else Will
by Amanda Skenandore
1940s Chicago nurse risks everything at an illegal women’s clinic during a high-profile trial of courage and sisterhood.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket
    Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young
    by Zayd Ayers Dohrn
    Son of Weather Underground radicals recounts life on the run and decades of revolutionary struggle.
  • Book Jacket
    The Jellyfish Problem
    by Tessa Yang
    A marine biologist rescues a Maine island menaced by a giant glowing jellyfish in this inventive debut.
  • Book Jacket
    Look What You Made Me Do
    by John Lanchester
    A propulsive tale of intergenerational tension and revenge from the Booker Prize nominee.
Who Said...

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some to be chewed on and digested.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Book
Trivia
  • Book Trivia

    Can you name the title?

    Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

Q S, S

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.