Sälam, Habibi: A Dubai Love Story

By Leakey Maitethia and Patience Nkatha

Selam Bekele arrives in Dubai with a collection of her mother's weaving skills and a single language: Somali, and little realises that the man sent to welcome her, Rashid Al-Fahim, is the only one who can know her without having to learn a word of English.
It starts as an artist's residency, but soon turns into an unplanned falling - a slow, careful collapse that takes away Rashid's family's approval, his seat on the board, and the discipline of the last fifteen years. For Selam, it is about creating a life from a foreign place, a foreign language, and a foreign kind of love that requires everything she has from her as far back as the ocean.
From a marble hotel lobby to a school built in her mother's memory; from boardroom conflicts to the raising of a daughter who can navigate both worlds; from what survives being translated into another language, to what can only be fully said by hands not words: S lam, Habibi is a story spanning more than a decade.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0H9MF581T
• ISBN13: 9798188097721
• Release Date: July 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 134 Pages
• Weight: 0.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"