Susan Abulhawa

"Nahr shares her life story from an Israeli solitary-confinement cell. As a young woman, she dreamed of marriage and modern appliances, but found herself a jilted bride, struggling with displacement, refugeehood, abandonment, and sexual exploitation. A foul-mouthed critic and passionate dancer, Nahr finally returns to Palestine, where she is transformed by the power of her roots, literature, and love. There, she reemerges a radical political thinker...

"There was a time when they lived in the village of Beit Daras, and the sun was hot and the earth was rich. There were ruins dating back to the Crusades; now their homes, too, are ruins, and they are refugees in the small strip of Gaza. And yet, when young Khaled dies, and moves on to the afterlife, it is back in Beit Daras that he finds himself. And from here he may slip through history, watching the continuing the story of his matriarchal family....

It is 1947, and Beit Daras, a quiet village in Palestine, surrounded by olive groves, is home to the Baraka family. Eldest daughter Nazmiyeh looks after her widowed mother, prone to wandering and strange outbursts, while her brother Mamdouh tends to the village bees. Their younger sister, Marian, with her striking mismatched eyes, spends her days talking to imaginary friends, and writing. When Israeli forces gather outside the town's borders, nobody...