Description
Book SynopsisFrom the author of the international bestseller Mornings in Jenin comes a powerful, passionate story of a family separated by conflict, and the tragedy they endure''The story Susan Abulhawa tells in this marvellous novel is hard to bear but impossible to ignore ... precise, courageous, and dazzling'' Teju Cole
''Gripping and deeply moving Suffering and resilience are difficult things to witness, but this powerful, politically engaged novel does so with a transformative literary grace.'' Independent on SundayIt is 1947, and Beit Daras, a rural Palestinian village, is home to the Baraka family oldest daughter Nazmiyeh, brother Mamdouh, beautiful, dreamy Mariam and their widowed mother. When Israeli forces descend, sending the village up in flames, the family must take the long road to Gaza, in a walk that will test them to their limits.Sixty years later, in America, Mamdouh's granddaughter Nur falls in love with a doctor. Following him to
Trade ReviewThe story Susan Abulhawa tells in this marvellous novel is hard to bear but impossible to ignore. Through four generations of a Palestinian family,
The Blue Between Sky and Water shows how history’s assault on each person is public, and how it nevertheless cannot extinguish the private experience of grief or the secret sense of eros. Abulhawa's vision is precise, courageous, and dazzling -- Teju Cole
In true
Thousand and One Nights style, Abulhawa surprises us by continually unfolding new stories … Characters struggle to keep their secrets, but Abulhawa releases them. These are secrets we need to know, secrets that will educate us about ourselves, and Gaza * Guardian *
Gripping and deeply moving … Suffering and resilience are difficult things to witness, but this powerful, politically engaged novel does so with a transformative literary grace. Abulhawa’s prose is luminous; her control of a complex weaving of narrative voices – young and old, male and female, magical and real – is masterful. The novel provides an intimate close-up of the women of Gaza and of the everyday heroism amid relentless loss * Independent on Sunday *
She is a fine observer of female kinship ... A powerful read * Financial Times *
One of the most thought-provoking books I’ve read … written with passion, honesty and poetry *
Daily Mail on
Mornings in Jenin *
Abulhawa’s writing shines … Friendship, adolescence, love: ordinary events, offset against extraordinary circumstances, make the story live * Independent *
The writer’s pain – and the beauty of her prose – are very real * Daily Telegraph *
Powerful and moving * Stylist *
Powerful and passionate … unforgettable -- Michael Palin
Heartbreaking -- Esther Freud
