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by Imil Habibi, S.
K. Jayyusi, T. Legassick, Salma Khadra Jayyusi, Trevor Le
Gassick
With everyone paying more attention to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict in the wake of recent events, Habiby's novel about a
Palestinian man, Saeed, who remains in Israel after its
creation and becomes an informer for the state, is sure to
attract attention. Written in 1974 but appearing for the first
time in the U.S., the tale is told in the form of letters
written to an unnamed correspondent after Saeed has escaped to
outer space with the help of an extraterrestrial friend.
Saeed's experiences are both comic and tragic, triumphant and
defeated. He tries to gain favor by being the best informant,
but his bad luck and dim wit guarantee his failure; his life
is lived in constant fear, yet he is never without hope.
Habiby's blending of fantasy and reality intentionally
obscures our sense of what is real and what is not, but it
heightens our awareness of the complexity of the political
conflict in the Middle East. As an Arab in Israel (and
one-time member of the Israeli Parliament), Habiby has strong
views on the conflict, but even readers who disagree with him
will find this strange novel to be thought-provoking on a
number of levels. Helpful translators' notes serve as a primer
on Middle Eastern history and culture
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