Lydia Lin

My Fatima Lydia Lin

This story is about Trudy and her new friend Fatima, how their friendship was tested, and how both of their lives were changed forever by tradition and political strife. Soon after her father begins serving as the German ambassador to Jordan, 14-year old Trudy finds herself in the dorm of the Beirut Evangelical School for Girls. An only child who has mostly lived a sheltered life, Trudy embraces this new world, but she cannot shake off the feeling of being an outsider. Yearning for an intimate friendship, she develops a secret admiration for a Palestinian schoolmate named Fatima. Finally, she plucks up the courage to speak to Fatima, and the two girls become best friends. Things get complicated when Fatima reveals that her lover is a PLO militant. Religious and political tension has been building up beneath the peaceful coexistence and prosperity enjoyed by the people of Lebanon. Beirut, it turns out, is not the safest place for Trudy. Come along with Trudy to have a look at life in Beirut in the 1960s and see how this drama of friendship, women's rights and political conflict plays out.