A rift in time ( travels with my Ottoman uncle) by Raja Shehadeh
03 Mar 2011 12 Comments
in palestine Tags: ARAB FICTION, NEW BOOKS, non fiction, prize winners
Raja Shehadeh is a Palestine writer ,lawyer and human rights activist ,he studied in London ,his father was also a lawyer .He was one of the first people to accept the need for a two state solution to the Arab /Israeli conflict he also found the Al -Haq human rights organization which monitors human rights in Palestine .he has published a number of other books in 2008 he won the Orwell prize for his book Palestine walks .
A rift in time starting point is Raja researching his family background and coming across his uncle Najib ,which he didn’t know a lot about but an interesting and unique man appear from the mist of time .A character that Raja decides to follow almost a hundred year later .Najib was a writer,journalist and romantic guy ,who was very critical of certain decisions that were taking place in the Ottoman empire around the time of the first world war ,mainly their decision to join that war but also a worry about the growth in the region around what would be modern Israeli .This lead to Najib facing the death sentence and going on the run around what is now Lebanon ,Jordan ,Palestine and Israeli .A lot of the small villages that his uncle visited were wiped out in the 1948 war .so we travel meet the locals and Raja does a wonderfully poetic job in showing Najib experiences and his own along the same route .He builds up the tension as Najib runs out of places to hide ,but to find out if he gets caught and what Raja discovers I suggest you read the book .
In planning the route of his escape ,Najib had not been hampered by the political borders that many Palenstines are not allowed to cross today .Under the Ottomans on the eve of the first world war there is no administrative unit called Palenstine.Hafia ,acre ,Safad and Tiberias were part of the Beirut sanjaq (an administrative subdivision of a Vilayet or province) .
Raja beginning his Research into his uncle Najib’s escape from death sentence .
I enjoyed the evenness of Raja writing it is so easy given the situations in the area to get bog down in facts figures and most of all the politics of the region ,these are touched on but don’t drive the story ,which is heartbreaking at times ,touching at others the loss villages and a colourful past due to the wiping out of so many villages in the late 20th century .
here is a Guardian interview with Raja
Raja is currently in the UK you can catch him here -
Friday 4 March 2011 – 6.30-8pm, FREE http://www.mosaicrooms.org/raja-shehadeh/
Raja Shehadeh:A Rift in Time-Travels with My Ottoman Uncle
Raja will be in conversation with British-Palestinian filmmaker Omar Al-Qattan.
Places are strictly limited, please RSVP 020 7370 9990, info@mosaicrooms.org
A.M. Qattan Foundation, The Mosaic Rooms, Tower House, 226 Cromwell Road, London SW5 0SW, UK
Saturday 5 March – 10:00
BBC Radio 4 Excess Baggage – Raja Shehadeh talking to Chris Wilson
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00z2ncd
Sunday 6 March – 17:00 Jewish Book Week
http://www.jewishbookweek.com/2011/a-rift-in-time.php
A Rift in Time – Raja Shehadeh interviewed by Jo Glanville
Tickets £10. To book in advance go online http://www.jewishbookweek.com/2011/a-rift-in-time.php Or call 0844 847 2274
Jewish Book Week, Royal National Hotel, Bedford Way, London WC1 0DG
Monday 7 March - 18:00
Glasgow Aye, Write! Festival
http://www.ayewrite.com/programme/events/pages/rajashehadehevent.aspx
Venue: Mitchell Library, Glasgow G3 7DN
Tel 0141 287 2999
Cost: £8/£6
Mordechai’s moustache and his wife’s cats by Mahmoud Shukair
06 Jan 2011 13 Comments
in palestine Tags: ARAB FICTION
source – library
Mahmoud Shukair was born in Jerusalem mount scopius in 1941 ,studied philosophy at university and was Palestine minster of culture from 97 -00 ,he has also been a Journalist and is currently working on the mahmoud Darwish prize ,he has a great site in arabic that I translated via google .Mordechai’s moustache is a collection of stories and Vignettes his first collection to be translated in to english by Banipal books .
The book has four longer short stories ,all funny and poignant in their own ways ,a talk about the Columbian pope star Shakira hows family originate from Palestine originally ,a tale about will the brazilian footballer Ronaldo come to Palestine ,the title story a funny tale set on a board post a touch of gallows humor .But the main part I loved was the Vignettes these were total gems ,they remind me of Ben Okri describing the process when he wrote his ultra short stories for tales of freedom as being like fiction Hakiu ,well I think these are like that ,these are like postcards of life under fire a Polaroid of Palestine some of these made me belly laugh the man sing to a women that had moved ,others were dark a murder scene by a fountain,you jump in and out weather it shopping ,loss .It is clever mix the palenstine situaton leads to a dark humour which is wonderfully caught in the title story .the stories are vivid are vibrant
Mordechai was a simple man .There were tens of thousands like him in Tel Aviv .However ,he insisted that there were few like him there .He liked to live an easy , comfortable life , not disturbing anyone and not being disturbed by anyone .that,s why Mordechai continued to be like by his neighbours ,for he did not disturb them .mordechai joined the army and left it .
opening of title story .
Most of the stories were translated by Issa Bouletta ,who’s retired gentleman I read a couple of years ago another book worth reading .the book is short 110 pages .a wonderful view of a fractured land and its people
Have you read any Palestine fiction ?
I SAW RAMALLAH BY MOURID BARGHOUTI
20 Oct 2010 6 Comments
in palestine
Mourid Barghouti is a Palestine poet and writer ,he has lived in Egypt ,Kuwait and Bulgaria ,he has published numerous volumes of poetry in arabic ,I saw Ramallah is his autobiographical narrative of his return to Palestine after nearly thirties years .He is married to the Egyptian novelist Radwa Ashour ,they have a son ,they lived apart after Mourid was expelled from Egypt in the seventies and spent most of seventeen years apart .
The book opens with Mourid nervously crossing the bridge in to Palestine and his homeland of Ramallah ,he is due to give a speech at his town ,there is an opening of a new culture centre .
I said once to a friend “when Palestine is no longer a chain worn with an evening dress ,an ornament or a memory or a golden Qur’an ,when we walk on Palestine dust ,and wipe it off our shirts collars and off our shoes ,hurrying to conduct our daily affairs – our passing ,normal ,boring affairs -when we grumble about the heat in Palestine and the dullness of staying there to long ,then we will really have come close too it “
a passage from early in the book .
As you can see Mourid words are poetic at time the narrative wonders forward and back in time from the present his worries at returning to Palestine after such a time ,this heigtens on the second or so day when he returns to his home town of Deir Ghassanah ,after a long absent he remembers that every house used to have a special name in his youth ,the family and how the married with in the town ,elsewhere he recounts the passing of thirty years as an exile and in some ways a nomad .He has never felt settle ,after being forcibly removed from Egypt ,spend time in Budapest as a PLO representative .he comes to Deir Ghassanah ,and the memories flood back ,he gets nervous about giving the speech to open the culture centre to his peers and family members .
This book is one of the most powerful pieces I ve read Mourid life is laid bare ,his poetic tones hid great sadness at points ,the feeling of never belonging after losing your homeland for thirty years ,but on his return it feels vastly different the restrictions and the change in his beautiful homeland shock him .I leave this review with his own closing words which seem very fitting .
What deprives the spirit of colours ?
What is it other than the bullets of the invaders that have hit the body ?
good questions indeed .
