My Heart Beats in Deutschland
Publisher: Dar al Fikr
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Damascus, Syria
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 103
Description: In 2004, the Frankfurt Book Fair was hosting the Arab World as the 'Guest of Honor,' and Randa Hamwi Duwaji was invited by a Syrian publisher to represent her country of birth.  She read from her collection, ‘My Heart Beats in Deutschland,’ compiled especially for the  occasion.  In the audience was her classmate and long-lost best friend from 4th grade, at the American School they had both attended so many decades back.
The author read what she had written aloud, saying: "I am thankful for having had a good life, but as an Arab, it hasn’t been easy.  This collection will help many people understand why.  When you bridged the time-gap, my friend, it was as if we had never lost track of one another.  As for a ‘cultural-gap,’ I know it doesn’t exist between friends.  I also know that whenever two strangers reach out to each other, they begin to bridge all gaps.  This is the bridge; Wilkommen to Frankfurt!"
 
In August 2008, Randa was invited to present her linguistic research about the Qur’an at the Grassi Museum in Leipzig, Germany.  Her bridge-building mission had come full circle.