In the Lebanese village of Bhamdoun in 1931, Joseph Friedmann is born to a 15-year-old Syrian-Jewish girl hastily married off to a Belgian businessman thirty years her senior. After his parents divorce, Joseph's new Christian step-father refuses to rear a Jewish child. At the age of eight, Joseph is banished to a Catholic convent, where he experiences betrayal, anti-Semitism, and a deep trauma he cannot bring himself to name. He learns to survive by locking away his feelings. But at the ag...

In the Lebanese village of Bhamdoun in 1931, Joseph Friedmann is born to a 15-year-old Syrian-Jewish girl hastily married off to a Belgian businessman thirty years her senior. After his parents divorce, Joseph's new Christian step-father refuses to rear a Jewish child. At the age of eight, Joseph is banished to a Catholic convent, where he experiences betrayal, anti-Semitism, and a deep trauma he cannot bring himself to name. He learns to survive by locking away his feelings. But at the ag...