The House of Youssef is a collection of short stories detailing the migrant experience in Australia, exploring the lives of Lebanese migrants who have made their home deep in Sydney's western suburbia. The collection circles themes of isolation, family and community, and nostalgia for the home country. This is an interconnected exploration of relationships, the customs and traditions which both create and complicate them, the unwavering bond between parents and children, the dark secrets of marriage, the delicate bonds between friends and how easily they can be shattered.

Told with extreme minimalism, Kassab has no problem in breaking the hearts of readers with a vignettes barely two pages long. If anything, her efficiency with words serves only to heighten the emotional impact on the reader. These are the stories of the ordinary person, and are unfailingly relatable, simple and unglamorous in their telling. The understated style of Kassab's writing isolates tiny details and highlights the anxieties of her characters. To read this collection is to feel grief, sadness, longing, nostalgia and rebellion.