I have now read twenty Palestinian novels in a row. Initially I thought I might struggle to find twenty, given that I had already read a few but it was not a problem. Whether it was wise to read twenty Palestinian novels in a row is another matter. All of them, without exception, showed to … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Ahlam Bsharat‘s الاار للناس الغائبين (Trees for the Absentees). This novella follows the story of a young Palestinian woman, Philistia. Her father is in an Israeli jail. She has helped her grandmother who was both a corpse washer and a midwife/baby washer. The grandmother is now dead. Philistia … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Rabai al-Madhoun‘s كونشرتو الهولوكوست والنكبة (رواية، (Fractured Destinies). In this somewhat complicated novel, we start with the death of an Armenian woman, Ivana, who was born and bred in Palestine. She asks her daughter Julie (English father) and Julie’s Palestinian husband, Walid, who has spent most of his … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Sahar Mustafah‘s The Beauty of Your Face. This novel is set primarily in the Chicago suburbs. However the heroine, Afaf Rahman, like the author, is the daughter of Palestinian immigrants. We follow two alternating stories . The first is Afaf’s story. Her parents did not get on and … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Samir El-Youssef‘s The Illusion of Return. Our unnamed narrator has been living in London for fifteen years. He was born in a refugee camp in Lebanon where he used to hang out with three friends, though they disagreed on various issues. In London he had been writing a … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Isabella Hammad‘s The Parisian. Midhat Kamal lost his mother when he was two. When his father remarries, Midhat is sent off to a French school in Constantinople and then to study medicine in Montpellier. Things do not go well there, partially because he falls in love with his … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Ibrahim Fawal‘s On the Hills of God. This tells the story of Ardallah, an idyllic Palestinian town and its inhabitants, focussing on Yousif Safi, aged seventeen, still at school at the start of the novel, only son of the well-off and well-respected local doctor. The novel opens in … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Mahmoud Shukair‘s لقدس و حدها هناك (Jerusalem Stands Alone). This is a series of closely linked (very) short stories telling the stories of a Palestinian family, the unamed Palestinian narrator, a few other linked characters and the city of Jerusalem, a key character in this book. Our family … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Selma Dabbagh‘s Out of It. The book opens in Gaza with the Mujahed family and their friends and neighbours. Rashid is eager to go to a London where he has a scholarship to study and a girlfriend. His twin sister, Iman, is involved in a women’s group and … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Shaw Dallal‘s Scattered Like Seeds. Dallal was a Palestinian who emigrated to the United States via Kuwait, where he had a successful career as a lawyer. This is an autobiographical novel and Dallal is here Thafer Ayoub Allam. We follow his story from a childhood encounter with occupying … Read more