Where the Jasmine Blooms

Meet Zeina

Zeina Sleiman is a Palestinian Canadian writer who lives in amiskwacîwâskahikan (also known as Edmonton). She is a Tin House workshop alum and former mentee in Canada’s Writers Union BIPOC Connect Program. She is also the recipient of the 2024 Silk Road Creative Arts Grant.

Where the Jasmine Blooms is her debut novel and will be released in April, 2025. Zeina is currently working on her second novel Tell Me About Mercy which explores themes of emerging love amidst difficult socio-political contexts. 

Her love of books extends to the community. At IslamicFamily, an Edmonton-based social services agency, Zeina volunteers as their Librarian-in-Residence and curates reading lists for the community based on rotating themes.

Zeina holds a PhD in political science and works in post-secondary education where she has taught courses in politics and leads special projects. 

When she’s not working or writing, she likes to spend time with her husband and children, experimenting with new crochet patterns or exploring new worlds and people as she journey’s through her never-ending list of books. 

Yasmine enters Lebanon escaping a messy divorce and seeking the family, culture, and connection that her Palestinian mother hid during their life in Toronto. It’s 2006, and she’s meeting her cousin Reem for the first time after connecting over social media. Reem teaches Arabic and lives in a refugee camp with her mother and sister. Her brother Ahmed lived there too until he went to Syria for work and then disappeared. When Yasmine receives a package of mysterious letters suggesting her father might still be alive, the cousins embark on a discovery of political secrets no one in the family wants them to know. 

Complicating her questions about identity, belonging, and healing even further, Yasmine runs into Ziyad — an old flame who’s incidentally taking Reem’s class. Though Yasmine’s and Reem’s lives could not be more different, they must learn from each other as they navigate abusive relationships, grief, displacement, and war.

Set amid the arid glamour of Lebanon’s beaches and urban landscapes, Where the Jasmine Blooms is at once a political historical thriller and a Muslim feminist love story. Turn-of-the-century Arab politics feature prominently, echoing loudly even twenty years later. 

The book is available wherever books are sold, but please support your local bookstore!

About The Book

Raving Reviews

What Readers Are Saying

Raving Reviews • What Readers Are Saying

  • "Where the Jasmine Blooms poses the complexity of the mysteries that haunt & impact us, and the lengths one will go to find the truth. Through immersive prose and thought-provoking characters, Zeina Sleiman delivers a story that pierces the core of how hard it can be to reckon with the world around us in the midst of turmoil, and beautifully depicts how necessary this journey is for preservation and healing."

    Jennifer Baker, editor, Everyday People: The Color of Life

  • “A powerful story of family, generational trauma and Palestinian identity, Zeina Sleiman’s debut novel is an engaging and bittersweet story about secrets, both acknowledged and hidden. A compelling read.”

    Uzma Jalaluddin, author of Ayesha At Last

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