Born Between Rivers

Born Between Rivers is a memoir about a girl who crossed continents with nothing but her family, her faith, and a childhood that ended too soon. It is a story about survival, belonging, and the slow, tender work of learning how to feel safe again. The title honors the land where Hiba was born. Mesopotamia means the place between rivers, held by the Tigris and Euphrates. It is where her life began, and it is the home she carried in her memories long after she left. When Hiba's family fled war torn Iraq and Syria, she stepped into a new world at twelve years old, unable to speak English and trying to hide the grief she did not have words for. In American classrooms, she learned what it meant to be misunderstood, to be laughed at for her accent, to shrink herself to survive. But she also learned something else. She learned that healing is not loud. It is made of small choices. It is built in therapy rooms, in late night study sessions, in the kindness of strangers who become community. Born Between Rivers follows her journey through fear, shame, and isolation to a place where she begins to reclaim her identity. It is about the girl who once felt invisible, becoming the woman who finally speaks. More than a memoir, this book is a bridge. It brings readers into the unseen emotional world of immigrants, the weight of inherited trauma, and the quiet strength it takes to rebuild a life from scratch. It is a story for anyone who has ever felt out of place, anyone who has ever carried a past that still echoes, anyone who is learning how to belong without losing where they came from. At its core, Born Between Rivers is a love letter to resilience, to family, and to all the small ordinary moments that remind us we are still here, still healing, still moving forward.