Always Coca-Cola

?The narrator of Always Coca-Cola, Abeer Ward (fragrant rose, in Arabic), daughter of a conservative family, admits wryly that her name is also the name of her fathers flower shop. Abeers bedroom window is filled by a view of a Coca-Cola sign featuring the image of her sexually adventurous friend, Jana. From the novels opening paragraphWhen my mother was pregnant with me, she had only one craving. That craving was for Coca-Colafirst-time novelist Alexandra Chreiteh asks us to see, with wonder, humor, and dismay, how inextricably confused naming and desire, identity and branding are. The namesand the novels edgy, cynical humormight be recognizable across languages, but Chreitehs novel is first and foremost an exploration of a specific Lebanese milieu. Critics in Lebanon have called the novel an electric shock.