These 12 Palestinian Books Deserve Your Shelf Space
Palestinian literature is all the rage these days (and rightly so!) I mean, even President Joe Biden has been spotted with one of the Palestinian books recently. It’s time for another set of recommendations from your resident Muslim Girl bookworm! 2024 has been an amazing year of publications for Palestinians with releases across genres, sharing diverse narratives.
Here’s a list of a bunch of incredible works published by Palestinians this past year and some you may not have heard of.
Nonfiction
‘Recognizing the Stranger: On Palestine and Narrative’ by Isabella Hammad
Nine days before October 7, 2023, award-winning author Isabella Hammad delivered a speech, the “Edward W. Said Memorial Lecture” at Columbia University in New York City. The transcript of Hammad’s speech and afterword, which were written in the early weeks of 2024, was published to share her thoughts on the Palestinian struggle for freedom. It was such a timely speech and continues to make an impact on a global scale.
‘Their Borders, Our World: Building New Solidarities with Palestine’, edited by Mahdi Sabbagh
The organizers of the Palestine Festival of Literature present an anthology of essays that connects Palestinian resistance with global liberation struggles against settler colonialism and encourages us to think critically about solidarity.
‘Ghassan Kanafani: Selected Political Writings’, edited by Louis Brehony and Tahrir Hamdi
Ghassan Kanafani (1936–1972) is renowned as one of the greatest Palestinian novelists to live. His work is known for its candid documentation of the horrors of war and occupation. Ghassan Kanafani was also a leading political thinker and revolutionary. In this anthology, his writings on politics, history, collective liberation, and the media are collected and translated into English for the first time.
‘Palestine Rising: How I Survived the 1948 Deir Yasin Massacre’ by Dawud A. Assad
This is a memoir from the grandfather of our very own Muslim Girl founder, Amani! Her grandfather bravely shares his story of how he survived the Nakba of 1948. Memoirs from Palestinians are a testament to their resilience and existence despite all odds.
Fiction
‘Behind You Is the Sea: A Novel’ by Susan Muaddi Darraj
This is a debut novel that showcases the diverse voices of a Palestinian American community in Baltimore, Maryland. We see vignettes of characters and stories touching on themes of class, generational trauma, and religion.
‘Thyme Travellers: An Anthology of Palestinian Speculative Fiction’, edited by Sonia Sulaiman
This is an anthology that collects 14 Palestinian voices in speculative fiction. Speculative fiction as a genre invites a reconfiguring of reality, and in this collection, each story is a portal into realms of history, folklore, and futures.
‘No One Knows Their Blood Type’ by Maya Abu Al-Hayyat
“No One Knows Their Blood Type” is a novel of identity, belonging, and conflicting truths amidst stories, secrets, music, rumors, and lies. On the day of her father’s death, Jumana makes a discovery about her blood type and how she could not have inherited it from her father. This novel centers around Palestine in its narrative with a focus on Palestinian women’s livelihood. The novel encourages us to consider love, friendship, parenthood, and desire at the core of our conversations about liberty, freedom, and resistance.
‘Beside the Sickle Moon: A Palestinian Story by Thaer Husien’
“Beside the Sickle Moon” is a dystopian story that touches on the themes of the Palestinian struggle for resistance and the day-to-day horrors of life under occupation.
Poetry
‘The Moon That Turns You Back: Poems’ by Hala Alyan
This collection of poetry touches on displacement and the Palestinian diaspora as well as grief, fertility, and love. The poems bounce back from Brooklyn to Beirut to Palestine.
‘Forest of Noise: Poems’ by Mosab Abu Toha
Mosab Abu Toha was already a well-known poet when the current siege of Gaza began which led to him and his family leaving their home behind seeking safety. During this past year, Mosab Abu Toha leaned on writing poetry as a means of coping and memorializing his experience which led to the publishing of Forest of Noise. These poems showcase an honest and brutal account of life in Gaza touching on love, grief, and violence.
‘Blood Orange’ by Yaffa As
“Blood Orange” is a poetry collection by Mx. Yaffa (They/She), a trans-Muslim displaced Indigenous Palestinian. Their poems touch on themes of home, belonging, mental health, queerness, transness, and other aspects of having a marginalized identity during a time of ongoing displacement and genocide of indigenous Palestinians.
‘Palestine Wail: Poems’ by Yahia Lababidi
In this poetry collection, Yahia Lababidi touches on the current issues surrounding the genocide in Palestine focusing on politics versus religion, media, government, and injustice. For him, it is a personal matter as his Palestinian grandmother, Rabiha Dajani, an educator, activist, and social worker was forced to flee her ancestral home in Palestine decades ago. As an Arab-American, Lababidi shares his candid thoughts on the occupation.
As the genocide in Gaza continues, it is crucial that we commit to supporting Palestinians in every aspect. Reading books by Palestinians is one way to preserve and validate the Palestinian identity and experience. Engage with Palestinian art and literature to expand your mind and amplify Palestinian voices!
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