Christine Estima is an author, journalist and playwright. Her essays, short stories, creative non-fiction, reviews and other writings have appeared in many Canadian literary journals and newspapers. Estima is described in her first published novel as an Arab woman of mixed ethnicity (Lebanese, Syrian and Portuguese). She was born in Trois-Rivières, raised in Montreal and now lives in Toronto.
Fiction
The Syrian Ladies Benevolent Society
Toronto: Astoria/House of Anansi Press, 2023.
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
With imaginative aplomb and abiding passion, The Syrian Ladies Benevolent Society masterfully traces the deep roots of the Arab immigrant experience. These unforgettable interlocking stories follow an Arab family as they flee the Middle East in the nineteenth century, settle in Montreal in the twentieth, and face the collision between tradition and modernity in the twenty-first. This family includes trailblazing Lebanese freedom fighters, undercover operatives in World War II, and brave Syrian refugees trying to find their place in Canadian society.
The line of daring women culminates in Azurée, a young Arab woman living in the echoes of her ancestors’ voices.
Anthology
Tok. Book 1
Estima, Christine. “Nylon-encased Flesh.” In Tok. Book 1, edited by Helen Walsh. Toronto: Zephyr Press, 2006, 131-142.