How wonderful, that you could cross the ocean and still find yourself looking at mothers and children walking the streets, peering into store windows, and catching buses to get home in time for dinner.

Maryam, a young woman from Baku, Azerbaijan, is thrown into the chaos of immigrant life when her mother decides to emigrate to the United States. Maryam initially remains inside at her window studying passersby and reflecting on their clothes, their coffee cups, and a hundred other points of divergence between two cultures. But reality eventually forces her from of the safety of her apartment and out into a foreign world that is at once fascinating, confusing, and not always kind.

While first a story of immigration, I Sat Alone by the Gate is also a powerful, introspective tale of a young woman coming into her own. Mary Efendi’s tender portrayal of home will appeal to anyone who has ever had to leave the place they love behind.

​Mary Efendi was born in Baku, Azerbaijan, and moved to America in 2003. After almost two decades in the US, life took Mary back to Baku. When she is not reading fiction and drinking cortado in a coffeeshop, she can be found painting on large canvases in her studio in Baku’s Old City.