|
 A
vivid and beautifully crafted chronicle of an exile's return
to Palestine.
Summoned by his dying mother, Palestinian-born Aziz Shihab
returns to the homeland he and his family fled as refugees
decades earlier: to a Palestine reclaimed by Israelis and to
a country no longer that of his youth in a nation whose
estate has been challenged by history. This gripping book
chronicles that month-long journey.
Part memoir, part travelogue, it reveals the complexities of
leaving behind such the past and coming to grips with its
abandonment. With his sharp ear for dialogue and with a
journalist's eye, Shihab records and considers, sometimes
with fond humor, the Palestinian psyche. Family meetings
brim with soothing time-honored ritual and cultural
blindness. Pungent street anecdotes resonate with profound
themes like human rights, land dislocation, and poverty.
Shihab's stories of departure and return, loss of land and
reconnection provide enriching insights into the depth and
intricacy of Palestinian culture and history and its legacy
of displacement.
Aziz Shihab is known for his independent newspaper, The Arab
Star. He has written about the Middle East for The Dallas
Morning News and The San Antonio Express-News.
|
