By Hala Alyan
This novel covers four generations of one Palestinian family, whose members move from one place to another in the wake of wars and other conflicts. Displacement, loss, attachment, identity, guilt, are all things the family members deal with, each with their own personality and aptitude.
As an Israeli reader, it wasn't easy for me to read parts of this book. Atrocities that my people committed are described there that I'd rather believe are untrue, even though I know other atrocities were and are committed by them, and I know that I've been fed myths growing up about the purity of the fighting of the IDF that I later learned didn't really hold. Still, it's hard for me to think that they would do that kind of atrocity. These were just a small part of the book, and most of it deals with personal struggles and more mundane life occurrences, but the overall arch emphasizes the Palestinian identity and what it might mean. [fiction; 320 pp.]
