The latest addition to my website is Yasmin Zahran‘s A Beggar at Damascus Gate. An unnamed American, born in Beirut, visits Petra in the winter and finds in a cupboard in his room some notebooks. One notebook is in English, written by an Englishman, Alex, several others are in Arabic, written by Rayya, a Palestinian … Read more
Every year around this time,I read only books from one country. I have a couple of countries which have been in the queue for a couple of years but circumstances have caused them to be delayed. Two years ago it was our travel to Norway that turned me to that country. Last year it was … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Ghassan Zaqtan‘s نقل القديم مع الستائر، (An Old Carriage with Curtains). This is an episodic novel with the narrator recounting episodes of his life and the life of his family, in particular his mother, since the Nakba. We learn of Zakhariyya where his mother was born. She longs … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Adania Shibli‘s وسفر الاختفاءتفصيل ثانوي (Minor Detail). This book has been in the news recently (October 2023) as Shibli and her book were cancelled at the Frankfurt Book Fair. The book is divided into two parts. The first is set in rhe Negev Desert, close to the Egyptian … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Ellis Sharp‘s Twenty-Twenty. This is a diary, influenced by Uwe Johnson‘s Jahrestage (Anniversaries), which he reads and comments on, in the early part of the book. We follow the author – he simply calls himself Ellis – both in his daily activities – shopping,looking after his young daughter, … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Akram Musallam‘s اسيرة العقرب الذي يتصبب عرقا (The Dance of the Deep-Blue Scorpion). Our unnamed narrator, clearly based on the author, had a epiphanic moment as a teen, when a French woman showed him her blue scorpion tattoo and let him outline the shape of her hips, while … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Sahar Khalifeh ‘s الأول : رواية (My First and Only Love). Our heroine is Nidal. The novel starts during the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine when the Jews are taking Palestinian land with the aid of the British who had the mandate over Palestine. Some of Nidal’s relatives … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Sonia Nimr‘s الاتمرتبة الأولى في جائزة الاتصالات (Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands). Our narrator/heroine is Qamar. Her father lived in a remote Palestinian village. When he was thirteen, he was allowed to visit the city with his father, He discovered a book – Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Ibtisam Azem‘s وسفر الاختفاء (The Book of Disappearance). The book is set primarily in Jaffa. Alaa is a Palestinian who works as a cameraman. At the beginning of the book his beloved grandmother dies and much of the book is tribute to her and the sufferings she and … Read more
The latest addition to my website is Shatila Stories, a collaborative novel, set up by Peirene Press and written entirely by Palestinian and Syrian refuges in the Shatila refugee camp and edited into a coherent novel. The novel tells of life within the camp and it is naturally not generally pretty. Conditions are poor, violence, … Read more