new york is much more than just a backdrop for liat aunt hilmi 's relationship.n the way that your book a set up. new york's neutrality is almost magical or surreal. talk to me about the story of love story between two people who were raised so close to one another and yet found each other and it up so far away. >> so true. new york offers a surface ground that would allow a palestinian and israeli to see each other equally, free and to explore one another's identity. at the same time, they explore themselves reflected by the other. this -- just knowing the other from within, studying the other from within. learning about yourself via the other, it allows them to know much deeper and much more authentically how much bruises they carry, how many stereotypes they bring from home. and how forceful are those powers of education that formed the identity and the outline of who they consider themselves to be? this is a huge gesture to know the other from within. to allow yourself to get near the stereotypes. all those harmful interests that make us a multitude. we are i