“Every now and again a literary work changes the way people think. Abulhawa, 2003 winner of the Edna Andrade Fiction and Creative Nonfiction Award, has crafted a brilliant first novel about Palestine. The book opens in the 1940s, in the small village of Ein Hod, before the forced relocation of residents to the Jenin refugee camp. Once in the settlement, a young girl named Amal Abulheja becomes the story’s focus. Through Amal’s eyes, readers see the daily routines of generations of refugees and glimpse the indignities imposed on Palestinians by the Israeli army; they’ll also see people fall in love, have babies, and develop an appreciation for poetry and scholarship. While some readers might see this novel as anti-Semitic, it is not. Indeed, Abulhawa goes to great lengths to highlight the universal desire of all people for a homeland. Furthermore, Abulhawa’s compassion for American victims of 9/11 and for those who suffered in the Holocaust illuminates what it means to be humane and spiritually generous. The Pennsylvania-based Abulhawa, herself Palestinian, has crafted an intensely beautiful fictionalized history that should be read by both politicians and those interested in contemporary politics. Highly recommended.”

-Editor, Library Journal

 

“The Scar of David is a haunting song that scales the dizzying heights and extremes of our profoundest feelings and emotions joy, tenderness, emptiness, self-loathing, exile and the inconsolable longing for home, loneliness, betrayal, vengeance, madness, unbearable loss wrung from the brutally indiscriminate fist of a war and occupation that has disfigured not only the victims of Israeli imperialism, but the perpetrators themselves, and the conscience of international community that insists on averting its eyes from the smoldering fate of a people forsaken and damned. Masterfully weaving actual historic events through a fictional tale of a family across three generations, Susan Abulhawa’s novel is ultimately a message of transcendent humanity and love as deep as the oceans.”

-Sunil K. Sharma, Editor and Publisher of Dissident Voice

 

“Abulhawa’s pathos and mastery enables the reader to taste, smell and grasp the chronicles of Palestine as if one is actually there in the presence of her exceptional characters and distinctive storylines. Lovely and heartrending, this story is a much read for those who wish to not only understand the catastrophe of the Palestinians with their heads but also with their hearts.”

-Ramzy Baroud, Palestinian-American journalist and author
Editor: PalestineChronicle.com

When you read “The Scar of David,” you know why God put author Susan Abulhawa on this planet. In a chaotic world where Orwellian doublespeak has overtaken governments and the media, it becomes more and more difficult to clearly enunciate the case for anything, let alone the complex issue of Palestine. But Abulhawa’s case for Palestine is made with the clarity of crystal. Abulhawa cuts to the chase. Forget about United Nations resolutions, World Court directives, Camp David and AIPAC.Come instead and breathe the sweet, fresh dawn air with the proud and honorable Yehia, the patriarch of this clan, in his lush olive groves on the first day of harvest in 1941, before the catastrophe of 1948 forces the family from its land. This is where “villagers cast moonshadows from their prayer mats,” as they greet the dawn with the day’s first prayer. Read More >>

M. Kay Siblani / Editor, The Arab American News

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“Throughout Susan Abulhawa’s timely, fact-based novel, The Scar of David, a profound question resonates: Why have the Palestinians been forced to pay for the Jewish holocaust?” Read More >>

-Eleanor Bader journalist and author

 

“A great book jolts people from complacency and shifts their consciousness. Susan Abulhawa’s timely, fact-based novel, The Scar of David, has the potential to be such a book.” Read More >>

-Editor, The Indypendent

 

“The Scar of David (Journey Publications, 2006) by Susan Abulhawa is a profoundly beautiful story. Set in Palestine, this novel transcends the particular history of the Palestinian people since their expulsion from their lands while simultaneously remaining firmly rooted in that experience.” Read More >>

-Editor, Counterpunch

How do you clear the debris of misconception and prejudice from people’s minds about one of the most misunderstood struggles in history? More importantly, how do you propel people toward a real understanding of the Palestinian people’s right to their homeland. Susan Abulhawa accomplishes these tasks (and more) with her first novel, The Scar of David. Read More >>

-Judy Greenspan

 

This complex story is beautifully told, weaving in historical events that are familiar, but which in the U.S. at least have always been filtered through an Israeli point of view. The perspective is brutal, yet ultimately not without hope. And it is elevated by Abulhawa’s use of language, as rich and surprising as an exotic flower. She draws us into the nightmare of her heroine’s existence with convincing passion.

-Susanne Dunlap, Historical Novels Review