The Language of Baklava

Content Warning: This section contains references to racism and the Holocaust.

The Language of Baklava follows Diana’s upbringing and early adulthood, which involve several physical moves: from America to Jordan and back, as well as changes of house and city within the US. These moves represent a constant search for home, first with her family and later alone. The restlessness of her father, which drives him to move his family back and forth to Jordan, passes on to Diana, as she feels she is torn between the two countries. As a teenager, Diana cannot wait to leave home and become independent, yet she is drawn back to her parents and their family house. She moves to Jordan herself after graduating in an attempt to decide where she belongs. After returning from Jordan, she feels the need to uproot herself from her job and city and move across the US to find a new place, ostensibly to settle. She concludes at the end of the book that she cannot accept having only one home: She feels at home on the move, as her Bedouin ancestors did.

Nevertheless, home is important to Diana, as evidenced by the emphasis she places on the physical spaces she occupies, as well as the neighbors who surround her.