The Resilience of the human spirit crawling from the rubble of the occupation claiming back their humanity, December 14, 2006 (Amazon.com)
By nadum (philadelphia)

The book traces the life of a Palestinian family from the late 1940 to now and examines the impact of the occupation on their lives, and their connection to the land. It starts with their lives in Ein Hud before the occupation in 1948, then moves to Jenin (refugee camp) before and after 1967. It touches on a sleuth of human quarks ranging from that strongest of bonds, the bond between mother and daughter over three generations, to the concept of displaced identity of a boy Ismail snatched from his mom’s arms as a baby by an Israeli soldier to be raised as Jewish boy (David) to find later that he is an Palestinian Arab.

It also touches on lifelong human connections that transcendent blood, space, time and religion, on blood relationship and kids robbed of their innocence and childhood, assuming roles of care takers, of mothers and fathers to each other in the face of losing theirs. It finally shows the resilience of the human spirit to crawl from the rubble of the occupation to claim back their humanity, refusing to be crashed and submersed into insignificant insects with no face, no history and no humanity.

The narrative is beautiful, poetic, sad, and very moving and the rhetorical devices are powerful and unconventional. Ms. Abulhawa has touched on the deepest of emotions and feelings and was able to have love with all its facets triumph and stand tall, rising above a world full of ugliness, despair and human cruelty. I have connected with the book in ways I haven’t felt about any book I read since Ahdaf Soueif’s “In the Eyes of the Sun.” My hat to Ms. Abulhawa, what a rocking first novel.