Iowa author George Khal will read from his new memoir The First Night of the Crescent Moon: My Journey from Palestine to Iowa at Carnegie-Stout Public Library at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 27, 2024.
Beginning with the turbulent events of 1948 and through the '60s, The First Night of the Crescent Moon is George Khal's coming-of-age tale about his family's long journey from their home in Haifa, Palestine to Cairo, Egypt, and eventually to Iowa City.
Khal tells his story with warmth and humor, as he vividly describes fathers and sons, familial dreams and expectations, and the refugee and immigrant experience of the Middle Eastern diaspora in Iowa.
George Khal is the author of the essay "Under the New Crescent Moon" which appeared in the Iowa Writers’ House 2020 volume of We the Interwoven: An Anthology of Bicultural Iowa. He is a 1972 graduate of University of Iowa, and he lives in Coralville, Iowa, where he continues to prepare delicious Palestinian foods for his friends and family.
George Khal's visit will be free and open to the public. Copies of "The First Night of the Crescent Moon" will be available to purchase at the event. For more information, please call the library at 563-589-4225, or visit us on Facebook.