In a nation where you are unfamiliar with the language, culture, or social mores, it is already challenging to grasp boys, attractiveness, and being cool when you are young. Malaka Gharib, age nine, travels to Egypt for her yearly summer vacation and anticipates that it will be the same as all the other times she has visited her father's home in Cairo. However, her father delivers some unexpected information: He got married again. Malaka will have to reconsider her status in her father's life over the course of the following fifteen years as she spends each summer with his expanding family. In addition, she still managed to keep her composure. Malaka doesn't feel at home when she goes to see her father because she stands out in Egypt and doesn't resemble her fair-haired half-siblings. Yet she adjusts. She discovers that Nancy Ajram is cooler than Nirvana, that a Fanta and a melon-mint hookah are the best combination, and that Hala, her new stepmother, isn't all that dissimilar from Malaka herself. It Won't Continually Be Like This is a moving reflection on identity, relationships, values, family, and what happens when it all converges. It is also a moving time capsule of Gharib's childhood memories, with each summer representing a fleeting moment in time.