The Day Nina Simone Stopped Singing (Paperback)

Raised on Charles Baudelaire, "A Clockwork Orange," and fine Bordeaux in 1970s Lebanon, Darina Al-Joundi was encouraged by her unconventional father to defy all taboos. As the bombs fell, she lived an adolescence of excess and transgression, defying death in nightclubs. The more oppressive the country became, the more drugs and anonymous sex she had, fueling the resentment by day of the same men who would spend the night with her. As the war dies down, she begins to incur the consequences of her lifestyle. On his deathbed, her father's last wish is for his favorite song, "Sinnerman" by Nina Simone, to be played at his funeral instead of the traditional "suras" of the Koran. When she does just that, the results are catastrophic.

In this dramatic true story, Darina Al-Joundi is defiantly passionate about living her life as a liberated woman, even if it means leaving everyone and everything behind.

Darina Al-Joundi was born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1968. "The Day Nina Simone Stopped Singing" is also the title of her critically acclaimed one-person show, which was performed in France, where she now lives as an actress, screenwriter, and filmmaker. She is planning a US tour of the show in 2011.