Amazon
This story originally appeared in HuffPost’s Books newsletter. Sign up here for weekly book news, author interviews and more.
I’m Haley Zovickian, a HuffPost staff writer, an avid reader and the guest curator of this week’s HuffPost Books reading list, which is dedicated to Palestinian authors and stories. I’m also a descendant of Armenian genocide survivors.
Advertisement
Palestinians, as fellow targets of genocide, are close to my heart, now more than ever. One of the goals of genocide is the erasure of victims’ stories. That’s why it’s so important to consciously prioritize Palestinian voices. And books, as we readers know best, are a powerful means of honoring others’ experiences and walking in their shoes.
While far from exhaustive, this list has something for everyone: history buffs, poetry lovers, fiction enthusiasts and even photography fans. Together, this sampling offers accounts of persecution, loss and grief — but also stories of love, hope, resistance, resilience and joy, which are integral parts of the Palestinian experience.
HuffPost and its publishing partners may receive a commission from some purchases made via links on this page. Every item is independently curated by the HuffPost Shopping team. Prices and availability are subject to change.
Advertisement
1
Amazon
"Rifqa" by Mohammed El-Kurd
Named in Time’s 100 Most Influential List in 2021 for his activism work and the first Palestine correspondent for The Nation, Mohammed El-Kurd’s “Rifqa” is the award-winning poet’s powerful compilation of poems inspired by the legacy of his eponymous grandmother — a woman El-Kurd described as “older than Israel itself and an icon of Palestinian resilience.” Each piece in the collection shows with staggering force the violence El-Kurd and other Palestinian families have endured from the impacts of occupation, starting with grandmother Rifqua’s exile from Haifa to the El-Kurd family’s dispossession in Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem. At times morbidly grim and harrowing, “Rifqua'' is also supplemented with coyly placed moments of hope, humor and simple everyday moments of life, but always with an intelligence that is both gained through the lived experience and literary talent of El-Kurd.
2
Amazon
"The Hundred Years’ War On Palestine" by Rashid Khalidi
This is an in-depth history of the 100 years of war against the Palestinians, according to Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University. Khalidi is also the great-great-nephew of Yusuf Diya al-Khalidia, the once-mayor of Jerusalem who, in 1899, expressed concern that the Zionist call would result in the mass displacement of Palestinians. Several decades later, his descendant would write about the conflict from the Palestinian perspective, detailing everything from the colonial impacts of war to the modern Zionist movement and present-day Israel. Possibly one of the best-known and exhaustive texts on this topic, Khalidi utilizes extensive research and archival source material, including the written reports and recorded experiences of the author’s family, government officials, scholars, journalists and more.
3
Amazon
"You Exist Too Much" by Zaina Arafat
“You Exist Too Much” is the award-winning debut novel from Palestinian-American author and writer Zaina Arafat. The novel is presented in short vignettes that move between America and the Middle East, tracing the protagonist's teenage life into adulthood. It’s a struggle for her as she navigates her queerness and is caught between her family’s expectations, her culture, the societies she moves within and her own identity and desires. Eventually, she’s living in Brooklyn as a DJ and hopeful writer and moving in with her first serious girlfriend. But the intensity of her past creates obsessive romantic addictions and reckless behaviors, and she finds herself in a treatment facility for having an addiction to love. Arafat’s story is as much about searching for love as it is to search for a place of belonging — a universal want for us all.
Advertisement
4
Amazon
"Against The Loveless World" by Susan Abulhawa
International bestselling author, activist and scientist Susan Abulhawa’s best-selling debut novel “Mornings in Jenin” solidified the writer as one of the most widely read Palestinian authors with over 30 translations of the book and more than a million copies sold. Her most recent novel, “Against the Loveless World,” is about Nahr, a young Palestinian woman refugee fighting for a better life for herself and her family. Nahr finds herself alone in solitary confinement in an Israeli prison, narrating her life and present tragic situation. Born in Kuwait in the late 1960s to Palestinian exiles. Nahr experiences a multitude of hardships, from poverty to prostitution. After fleeing Iraq following the U.S. invasion she eventually ends up in Palestine, where she falls in love while living under the Israeli occupation.
5
Amazon
"Salt Houses" by Hala Alyan
It’s 1963, and Salma is the matriarch of her family, who recently fled Jaffa to Nablus, Palestine. After the loss of her home, her husband and the memories made in Jaffa, she must stifle her own feelings of grief to carefor her children. Like it does after most losses, life is moving forward for Salma. There are weddings and new beginnings to celebrate in this family’s saga, which provides a multitude of perspectives and new generations, woven throughout the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict and its inescapable impact on these character’s lives.
6
Amazon
"Against Erasure: A Photographic Memory of Palestine Before The Nakba" by Teresa Aranguren, Sandra Barrilaro and Mohammed El-Kurd
With a foreword from Mohammed El-Kurd, “Against Erasure: A Photographic Memory of Palestine Before the Nakba,” is a breathtaking collection from editor and journalist Teresa Aranguren and photographer Sandra Barrilaro of images of Palestine prior to the occupation during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Aranguren is a Spanish journalist, who, in 1982, covered the Israeli invasion of Lebanon as a correspondent for Mundo Obrero (Workers World) and since then has extensively covered the Israel-Palestine conflict, the Middle East and the Gulf Wars. Together, she and Barrilaro created a stunning time capsule offering a glimpse into the lives of Palestinians prior to the Nakba to show that the existence of the Palestinian people endures despite the absence and change caused by colonialism.
Advertisement
7
Amazon
"Men In The Sun And Other Palestinian Stories" by Ghassān Kanafānī
Authored by writer and activist Ghassān Kanafānī, “Men in the Sun” is a collection of stories recounting the exile of Palestinians after the Nakba, meaning “catastrophe” in Arabic and a term that refers to the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Prior to the Nakba, Palestine was considered a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society, but when the conflict between Arabs and Jews escalated in the 1930s, so did violence and displacement due to the persecution of Jews in Europe, along with the Zionist movement to establish a Jewish state in Palestine. Published in 1962, the book breaks the simplistic assumptions of Palestinian life by showing instead the more complicated and complex realities. It’s also a haunting glimpse into the world of Palestinian refugees, including Kanafānī’s own lived experience prior to his death in 1972, after he was killed in a car bomb assassination by Mossad agents in Beirut.
8
Amazon
"Voices of the Nakba: A Living History of Palestine" by Diana Allan and Rosemary Sayigh
In 1948, nearly 750,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were violently removed from their homes in what is now known in Israel as the “Nabka.” In “Voices of the Nakba,” Diana Allan and Rosemary Sayigh spoke with first-generation Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon, transcribing their accounts and stories of that time. Gathering these interviews, Allan and Sayigh also relied on sources of Palestinian and Middle Eastern academia to provide a broader political, historical and cultural context of Palestine before the mass expulsion. This is excellent for anyone looking to read accounts from everyday Palestinians and a significant contribution to Palestinian’s struggles and history.
Advertisement
