Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. Today's interview is special because

usually when people write memoirs about their childhood and their families, it's so often a one-sided

affair, right? Like, the writer will say what they got to say and you rarely hear from the people

they're writing about. But NPR editor, Malika Gar wrote a graphic memoir titled It Won't Always Be Like This,

about her relationship with her dad and stepmom.

And all three of them spoke with NPR's Lelah Faddle about it.

And early on, her stepmom Hala says that even though they spoke different languages,

they could communicate with each other through a shared language of love.

In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors on our new show, sources and methods.

NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories

of real people helping you understand why distant events matter here at home. Listen to sources and

methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. NPR editor Malika Rharib spent a lot of

summer vacations in Egypt as a kid. Her parents had split up.

Her dad, Magid Rharib, had moved back to his country of birth, remarried, and had more children.

All those trips to Egypt were meant to create a sense of family bond with him and my stepmom and my siblings.

And they were really lame as a, you know, 14-year-old who would rather spend the summer

going to Tara Records and, like, hanging out with her friends and going to the beach.

I lived in Southern California.

But they were really, really important in the long run.

I remember writing in my diary, like, what would ever happen or become of my relationships with Selma and Ahmed and Dunia, my siblings? And here

we are. I mean, still hanging out together, you know, decades later. In her new graphic memoir titled,

...