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#SpringSkies Day 7: There literally is no #Escape from the tension in the story, palpable to the point of suffocation. I felt the protagonist‘s defiance battling with terror. My full review here: https://wp.me/pDlzr-qhH

The ships at first sailed down the Nile carrying guns not bread, and the railways were originally set up to transport troops; the schools were started so as to teach us how to say "Yes" in their language. They imported to us the germ of the greatest European violence, as seen on the Somme and at Verdun, the like of which the world has never previously known, the germ of a deadly disease that struck them more than a thousand years ago.

A doctorate - that's really something.
Putting on an act of humility, I told him that the
matter entailed no more than spending three years delving into the life of an obscure English poet.
I was furious - I won't disguise the fact from you - when the man laughed unashamedly and said We have no need of poetry here.

Woah. Heavy for sure. The casual, cold narrative of the first half - never personal - about the horrific actions of the soldiers, contrasted to the deeply personal and interior first person narrative of the second half. Both women met the same terrible tragic end, for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. So little has changed in 70 years. This is honest and unsentimental. Very good!!

For a little over 100 pages, this is a very heavy, yet timely book. Told in two sections, the first details the Israeli settlements in the Negev and a horrible crime that happens. The second section is a Palestinian narrator many years later who tries to find more information about the incident. It is a story of the ravages and horrors of war and displacement.

This has been on my shelf forever… and while it took a few pages (I had to reread the first 5 pages) to get a handle on the writing style, and then it blew me away. I could almost feel this story settling over me like a blanket while reading. Set in Cairo, this tells a story in 4 different perspectives.

Based on true events, this is a fictional account of a woman who was sexually assaulted by isreali soldiers.

Split into two timelines, 1949 and the other more recent, we experience Palastine.

This book is heavy. The heat, the sand, the occupation, you can feel the intensity in each sentence. For such a short book, it's exhausting, but necessary.

Five stars. Do pick this one up folks.

You may have heard of this book because it was set to receive the 2023 LiBeraturpreis Award at the Frankfurt Book Fair but its ceremony was controversially cancelled in the wake of the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel. This subtly written yet searing novella powerfully demonstrates the horrors of the Palestinian experience and the violence colonialism inflicts not only marginalized bodies, but on history, geography, and memory.

#HumbleHarvest Day 24: Finally found a copy (two actually) of this #Novella that I have been looking for - all copies sold out in the Emirates. Finally found it today in a book shop here in Bologna - the same bookshop my PhD candidate student recommended that I go to after visiting a day earlier. When I messaged her that I found tagged book, turns out she didn‘t notice it at all while she was here yesterday. Naturally, I got her the other copy. 💕

I read this because it was denied an award ceremony that it deserved. It was on the liberate with literature reading challenge too. Highly, highly recommend. 10/10.