I had the opportunity to read an ARC of the English translation of this book and I am so so glad I did!

The novel is set up as a frame tale, following a photographer who goes to Gaza to get photographs in 2014. There, we meet Nabil, an elderly Palestinian man who owns a bookshop. He insists that before the photographer can take his picture, he must listen to his life story.

What follows is a beautiful and heart wrenching look back at Nabil’s childhood in a refugee camp, the massacres committed against his people by Israeli troops, and the deep appreciation of literature that keeps him going despite it all. The book is an absolutely stunning meditation on the importance of literature to our shared humanity and packs so much emotion into a tight 130 page narrative.

This is one of my favorite works of fiction about Palestine that has come out in recent years, and I would highly highly recommend it when it is published this November!