Susan Abulhawa

________________'This anthology will help turn your intellectual understanding of oppression into an emotional one' - New Statesman'Thanks for being who you are and for giving us such exposure to wonderful people. Palestine is proud of you' - Suad Amiry________________The Palestine Festival of Literature was established in 2008. Bringing together writers from all corners of the globe, it aims to help Palestinians break the cultural siege imposed by the Israeli military occupation, to strengthen their artistic links with the rest of the world, and to reaffirm, in the words of Edward Said, ‘the power of culture over the culture of power’.Celebrating the tenth anniversary of PalFest, This Is Not a Border is a collection of essays, poems and stories from some of the world’s most distinguished artists, responding to their experiences at this unique festival. Both heartbreaking and hopeful, their gathered work is a testament to the power of literature to promote solidarity and courage in the most desperate of situations.Contributors: Susan Abulhawa, Suad Amiry, Victoria Brittain, Jehan Bseiso, Teju Cole, Molly Crabapple, Selma Dabbagh, Mahmoud Darwish, Najwan Darwish, Geoff Dyer, Yasmin El-Rifae, Adam Foulds, Ru Freeman, Omar Robert Hamilton, Suheir Hammad, Nathalie Handal, Mohammed Hanif, Jeremy Harding, Rachel Holmes, John Horner, Remi Kanazi, Brigid Keenan, Mercedes Kemp, Omar El-Khairy, Nancy Kricorian, Sabrina Mahfouz, Jamal Mahjoub, Henning Mankell, Claire Messud, China Miéville, Pankaj Mishra, Deborah Moggach, Muiz, Maath Musleh, Michael Palin, Ed Pavlic, Atef Abu Saif, Kamila Shamsie, Raja Shehadeh, Gillian Slovo, Ahdaf Soueif, Linda Spalding, Will Sutcliffe, Alice WalkerWith messages from China Achebe, Michael Ondaatje and J. M. Coetzee________________'Every literary act, whether it is a great epic poem or an honest piece of journalism or a simple nonsense tale for children is a blow against the forces of stupidity and ignorance and darkness … The Palestine Festival of Literature exists to do just that – and I salute it for its work. Not only this year but for as long as it is necessary' - Philip Pullman

';Precise, courageous, and dazzling.' Teju Cole From the author of the international bestseller Mornings in Jenin, a powerful, passionate story set in Gaza, of a family severed by colonialism, with a new introduction from Hala Alyan. In the small Palestinian farming village of Beit Daras, the women of the Baraka family invite shock. Nazmiyeh is brazen and fiercely protective of her clairvoyant little sister, Mariam, and of their mother, Um Mahmoud, known for the fearsome spirit that sometimes possesses her. When the family is forced by the newly formed State of Israel to leave their ancestral home, only Nazmiyeh and her brother survive the long road to Gaza. Amidst the violence and fragility of the refugee camp, Nazmiyeh builds a family, navigates crises, and nurtures what remains of Beit Daras's community. But her brother continues his exile's journey to America, where, upon his death, his granddaughter Nur grows up alone, in a different kind of exile. That is, until her longing for family and roots eventually beckon her to Gaza.

A major writer of our time. Alice Walker The 20th anniversary edition of one of the biggest contributions to anglophone Palestinian literature, with over a million copies sold worldwide, featuring a new introduction from Maaza Mengiste. Mornings in Jenin tells the unforgettable story of Amal, one of three Palestinian siblings, born in the Jenin refugee camp to parents displaced from their ancestral village in 1948 by the newly formed Jewish state. Amal grows up in the shadow of a family and community shattered by lossof home, country, heritage. Her brother Ismael, is stolen as an infant and raised as an Israeli soldier named David. Her older, beloved brother Yousef is transformed from professor to prisoner to fighter. Through war, occupation, and exile, over the course of six decades, three continents, and four generations, Amal emerges as the family's hearta girl who was read poetry by her father read poetry at dawn, a woman who finds love only to lose it in the Sabra and Shatila massacre, and a mother raising her daughter Sara alone in America while carrying the weight of a homeland she can not reclaim. When her brother David finally appears, searching for his origins, the three siblings' fractured lives converge in a powerful reckoning with identity, belonging, and the brutal price of a colonial injustice that has defined them all.

“If I must die, let it bring hope, let it be a tale.” This rich, elegiac compilation of work from the late Palestinian poet and professor, Refaat Alareer, brings together his marvelous poetry and deeply human writing about literature, teaching, politics, and family. The renowned poet and literature professor Refaat Alareer was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City alongside his brother, sister, and nephews in December 2023. He was just forty-four years old, but had already established a worldwide reputation that was further enhanced when, in the wake of his death, the poem that gives this book its title became a global sensation. “If I Must Die” is included here, alongside Refaat’s other poetry.Refaat wrote extensively about a range of topics: teaching Shakespeare and the way Shylock could be appreciated by young Palestinian students; the horrors of living under repeated brutal assaults in Gaza, one of which, in 2014, killed another of his brothers; and the generosity of Palestinians to each other, fighting, in the face of it all, to be the one paying at the supermarket checkout.Such pieces, some never before published, have been curated here by one of Refaat’s closest friends and collaborators. This collection forms a fitting testament to a remarkable writer, educator, and activist, one whose voice will not be silenced by death but will continue to assert the power of learning and humanism in the face of barbarity.

A heart-wrenching, powerfully written novel, spanning three generations of a Palestinian family through love and loss, war and oppression

In the small Palestinian farming village of Beit Daras, the women of the Baraka family inspire awe. Nazmiyeh is brazen and fiercely protective of her clairvoyant little sister, Mariam, with her mismatched eyes, and of their mother, Um Mahmoud, known for the fearsome djinn that sometimes possesses her. When the family is forced by the newly formed State of Israel to leave their ancestral home, only Nazmiyeh and her brother survive the long road to Gaza. Amidst the violence and fragility of the refugee camp, Nazmiyeh builds a family, navigates crises, and nurtures what remains of Beit Daras's community. But her brother continues his exile's journey to America, where, upon his death, his granddaughter Nur grows up alone, in a different kind of exile, the longing for family and roots eventually beckoning her to Gaza. Internationally bestselling author Susan Abulhawa's powerful new novel explores the legacy of dispossession across continents and generations. With devastatingly clear-eyed vision of political and personal trauma, The Blue Between Sky and Water is the story of flawed yet profoundly courageous women, of separation and heartache, endurance and renewal.

Tunteisiin vetoava tarina palestiinalaisnaisesta, joka ei suostu uhriksi.Nahr syntyy 1970-luvulla Kuwaitissa palestiinalaispakolaisille. Hän päätyy lyhyen avioliiton ja prostituution värittämää reittiä pakolaiseksi Jordaniaan, josta hän muuttaa isiensä maahan Palestiinaan vuosituhannen vaihteessa, juuri ennen toisen intifadan alkamista. Kun Nahr rakastuu ex-miehensä veljeen, israelilaisten terroristiksi tuomitsemaan mieheen, hän liittyy osaksi palestiinalaisvastarintaa.Nahr kertoo tarinaansa vankilassa rikkain sanankääntein, mustalla huumorilla sävyttäen. Mukaansatempaavan juonen ohessa romaani avaa palestiinalaiskysymystä ja pakolaisuuden ylisukupolvisia vaikutuksia.

Arab American Book Award Winner 2021 Aspen Words Literary Prize Finalist 2020 Athenaeum Literary Award Finalist 2020 Palestine Book Awards Winner Longlisted for Rathbones Folio Prize "Susan Abulhawa possesses the heart of a warrior; she looks into the darkest crevices of lives, conflicts, horrendous injustices, and dares to shine light that can illuminate hidden worlds for us." --Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize-winning author In this "beautiful...urgent" novel (The New York Times), Nahr, a young Palestinian woman, fights for a better life for her family as she travels as a refugee throughout the Middle East. As Nahr sits, locked away in solitary confinement, she spends her days reflecting on the dramatic events that landed her in prison in a country she barely knows. Born in Kuwait in the seventies to Palestinian refugees, she dreamed of falling in love with the perfect man, raising children, and possibly opening her own beauty salon. Instead, the man she thinks she loves jilts her after a brief marriage, her family teeters on the brink of poverty, she's forced to prostitute herself, and the US invasion of Iraq makes her a refugee, as her parents had been. After trekking through another temporary home in Jordan, she lands in Palestine, where she finally makes a home, falls in love, and her destiny unfolds under Israeli occupation. Nahr's subversive humor and moral ambiguity will resonate with fans of My Sister, The Serial Killer, and her dark, contemporary struggle places her as the perfect sister to Carmen Maria Machado's Her Body and Other Parties. Written with Susan Abulhawa's distinctive "richly detailed, beautiful, and resonant" (Publishers Weekly) prose, this powerful novel presents a searing, darkly funny, and wholly unique portrait of a Palestinian woman who refuses to be a victim.

'A thrilling, defiant novel' FATIMA BHUTTO'A masterpiece' MARC LAMONT HILL'Wonderful ... Shines a ray of hope into some very dark places' MICHAEL PALIN'A fearless work of imagination' AHDAF SOUEIFWinner of the Palestine Book AwardNahr has been confined to the Cube: nine square metres of glossy grey cinderblock, devoid of time, its patterns of light and dark nothing to do with day and night. Journalists visit her, but get nowhere; because Nahr is not going to share her story with them. The world outside calls Nahr a terrorist, and a whore; some might call her a revolutionary, or a hero. But the truth is, Nahr has always been many things, and had many names. She was a girl who learned, early and painfully, that when you are a second class citizen love is a kind of desperation; she learned, above all else, to survive. She was a girl who went to Palestine in the wrong shoes, and without looking for it found what she had always lacked in the basement of a battered beauty parlour: purpose, politics, friends. She found a dark-eyed man called Bilal, who taught her to resist; who tried to save her when it was already too late. Nahr sits in the Cube, and tells her story to Bilal. Bilal, who isn’t there; Bilal, who may not even be alive, but who is her only reason to get out.

Nahr sitter isolert i et israelsk høyrisikofengsel, på tiende året. Hun tilbringer dagene med å tenke over hendelsene som har bragt henne dit. Hun drømte om mann, barn, og en skjønnhetssalong, men ingenting ble som planlagt. Som datter av palestinske flyktninger kom hun til verden i Kuwait på syttitallet. Familien levde i fattigdom, og Nahr tvinges til å overskride sine egne grenser. Nahrs historie brenner, av sinne, kjærlighet, ømhet, hjelpeløshet og hat. Menneskene rundt henne strever og kjemper - for anstendighet, rettferdighet, normalitet - alt det vi andre, mer privilegerte mennesker tar for gitt. Fortellingen om Nahr er en roman om kjærlighet til en mann, til en familie, til et land. Og en bok som vil forandre folks måte å tenke på. Boka er tidligere utgitt med tittelen - Nahrs siste dans. «Viktig litteratur. (...) Helstøpt. Hovedpersonen virker sprell levende. Jeg leser en forfatter som virkelig vil noe stort, noe revolusjonært, nærmest, med litteraturen.» Katrine Judit Urke, Dagbladet (Terningkast 5)

Palestina, 1941. I den lille landsbyen Ein Hod fører en patriark sitt følge med familiemedlemmer og arbeidere gjennom olivenlundene. Mens de går mellom trærne, faller de grønne fruktene til marken og velsigner folket med årets bugnende grøde.1948. Abulheja-slekten jages fra forfedrenes land i Ein Hod og blir tvangssendt til en flyktningleir i Jenin. Det er Amal, patriarkens sønnedatter, som forteller om lillebroren som blir stjålet i kaoset som oppstår og hvordan han vokser opp hos et israelsk ektepar, mens den andre broren allerede som ung er villig til å ofre livet for palestinernes sak. En dag står brødrene ansikt til ansikt. Amals historie er både vakker og grusom. Den handler om stjålet barndom, om å være mor under umenneskelige forhold, om knuste drømmer og om tap - men mest av alt om forsoning og kjærlighet.Noen ganger kan en bok forandre folks måte å tenke på. "Morgen i Jenin" er en slik bok.Amals historie er både vakker og grusom. Den handler om stjålet barndom, om å være mor under umenneskelige forhold, om knuste drømmer og om tap - men mest av alt om forsoning og kjærlighet. " 'Morgen i Jenin' forklarer Palestina-konflikten bedre enn noen annen bok. Og det gjør Susan Abulhawas roman først og fremst fordi debutanten lykkes i å veve Palestina og Israels historier sammen med skjebnen til enkeltmennesker på begge sider i konflikten."Stein Slettebak Wangen, Adresseavisen"Denne gripende, og godt oversatte, boken følger en familie gjennom flere generasjoner. Vi begynner i forkant av staten Israel og lever oss gjennom mange (alle?) viktige episoder i den palestinske tragedien. Det er menn og kvinner som trasser seg videre, knekker sammen, mister vettet, språket, alt de eier, barn, elskede."Jon Rognlien, Morgenbladet

Text in Arabic. 1947: Beit Daras, a rural Palestinian village, is home to the Baraka family oldest daughter Nazmiyeh, brother Mamdouh, dreamy Mariam and their widowed mother. When Israeli forces descend, sending the village up in flames, the family must take the long road to Gaza, in a walk that will test them to their limits. Sixty years later, in America, Mamdouhs granddaughter Nur falls in love with a doctor. Following him to Gaza, she meets Alwan, who will help Nur discover the ties of kinship that transcend distance and even death. Told with raw humanity, The Blue Between Sky and Water is a lyrical, devastatingly beautiful story of a familys relocation, separation, survival and love.

From the author of the international bestseller Mornings in Jenin comes a powerful, passionate story of a family separated by conflict, and the tragedy they endure'The story Susan Abulhawa tells in this marvellous novel is hard to bear but impossible to ignore ... precise, courageous, and dazzling' Teju Cole'Gripping and deeply moving … Suffering and resilience are difficult things to witness, but this powerful, politically engaged novel does so with a transformative literary grace.' Independent on SundayIt is 1947, and Beit Daras, a rural Palestinian village, is home to the Baraka family – oldest daughter Nazmiyeh, brother Mamdouh, beautiful, dreamy Mariam and their widowed mother. When Israeli forces descend, sending the village up in flames, the family must take the long road to Gaza, in a walk that will test them to their limits.Sixty years later, in America, Mamdouh’s granddaughter Nur falls in love with a doctor. Following him to his work in Gaza, she meets Alwan, who will help Nur discover the ties of kinship that transcend distance – and even death.Told with raw humanity, The Blue Between Sky and Water is a lyrical, devastatingly beautiful story of a family’s relocation, separation, survival and love.