- Suad Amiry (1951-, Palestine) – Sharon and My Mother-in-Law: Ramallah Diaries (2004) and Nothing to Lose but Your Life: An 18-Hour Journey with Murad (2010).
This first novel offers a humorous yet tragic description of the author’s daily life under occupation in Ramallah from the early eighties to the present. They include scenes on the difficulty of obtaining gasmasks during the first Gulf War, driving her dog to a vet in Jerusalem for shots (leading to the dog getting the Israeli passport) and the author taking care of her 92-year-old mother-in-law during the second intifada while living next to Arafat’s headquarter (reference) (also in 2000 – 2005 Second Intifada).
Nothing to Lose but Your Life is written in the style of a daily diary and narrates the life of undocumented Palestinian labourers from the West Bank who are forced to cross the Green Line in search of work in Israel. It describes the difficulties of crossing the border, such as the tenuous negotiations at the checkpoint, and highlights the modes of resistance used by the workers to contest the ‘everydayness’ of the occupation (reference).
- Muʿīn Basīsū (1927 – 1984, Palestine) – Yawmiyyāt Ghazza (‘Diaries of Gaza’, 1971). This collection of memories, written by the poet Muʿīn Basīsū, reflects on the author’s growing up in Gaza. A special role is given to the sea, and how his uncle taught him to swim, a lesson that echoed in the way his poetry is written (reference). It goes on to describe the author’s leftist political leanings and involvement with communism, his relationships with other poets, the details of Gaza’s infrastructure, and his thoughts on poetry (also in M: Memoirs).
- Yusrī al-Ghūl (1980-, Palestine) – Gazzah 87 (‘Gaza 87’, 2017). Highlights the hardships of life in Gaza, specifically in the refugee camp of Jabalia, during the 1987 Intifada (reference). It specifically focuses on Palestinian workers crossing into Tel Aviv, Israel, to make their daily bread who were exposed to terrible working conditions, such as the harassment of young Palestinian men by Israeli women (also in 1987 – 1993 First Intifada).
- Aḥmad Ḥarb (1951-, Palestine) – Baqāyā (‘The remains’, 1996). This novel tells the story of the descendants of the matriarch Hajjah Mahbūba and other people from the village al-ʿAyn during the historical developments from the time of the British mandate, to the period of the Jordanian dominance and Israeli occupation, until the period immediately following the Oslo accord (reference). Among the village characters are Mahbūba’s grandchildren, Wadī, a young girl active in the resistance, and Waḥīd, an intellectual who regularly clashed with the Israelis over his inheritance rights, for which he eventually needs to go to court (reference) (also in V: Village and Rural life).
- Ibrāhīm Naṣrallah (1954-, Jordan / Palestine) – Aʿarās Āminah (2004, English trans. Gaza Weddings, 2017). This novel is set in Gaza and focusses on the friendship between Āminah and Randah. Living under Israeli rule, the two prepare for a wedding that will never happen, that of Āminah’s son. He was to marry Randah’s twin sister, but she was killed. Randah, an aspiring journalist, writes down the stories around her as the characters find hope and humor in miserable conditions. Aʿarās Āminah is written in the context of Naṣrallah’s Palestinian Comedy project, an eight-novel series in the spirit of Balzac’s La Comédie Humaine (see also: also in L: Cultural and Literary Heritage: French authors and philosophers).
- Ghassān Kanafānī’s (1936 – 1972, Palestine / Israel) short story collection ʿĀlam Laysa Lanā’ (‘A world not for us’, 1965) includes 15 stories that reflect on the fact that many Palestinians in Gaza are denied the basic elements of life and how this affects their psychological state and their means of resistance (reference). In the story ‘Jidrān min Ḥadīd’ (‘Walls of iron’), for example, a bird locked in an iron cage incessantly hits the iron bars with its wings. In another story, ‘al-ʿArūs’ (‘The bride’), a former resistance fighter looks for his imaginary bride after losing his rifle (reference).
- Saḥar Khalīfah (1941-, Palestine) – Al-Ṣubbār (1976, English trans. Wild Thorns, 1984) and Rabiʾ Ḥarr (2004, English trans. The End of Spring, 2008)
Al-Ṣubbār describes how Israeli soldiers’ violence breeds new violence as the victims gradually become victimizers, particularly towards their own women and children (reference). Usāmah has just returned to the West Bank from the Gulf when he is commissioned by the resistance to blow up the buses that carry Palestinian workers into Israel which includes, he is horrified to learn, his family, friends and childhood colleagues (reference) (also in I: Ideologies and Political Movements: Resistance and Revolt: Palestinian Fidāʾiyīn).
Rabiʾ Ḥarr is the story of Aḥmad, a sensitive young man living in a fictional village in the West Bank during the Second Intifada (reference). It narrates Aḥmad’s psychological transformation as he suffers from humiliations by his father, his first love (the daughter of an Israeli settler) and the Israeli occupation force, which finally leads him to commit a suicide attack by driving an ambulance into a crowd of Israeli soldiers (reference) (also in F: Family Life: Children and Adolescents: Bildungsroman and 2000 – 2005 Second Intifada).
- Rabḥʿi al-Madḥūn (1945-, Palestine) – al-Sayyida min Tel-Abīb (2009, English trans. The Lady from Tel Aviv, 2014). Dana, a Jewish actress living in London, travels to Tel Aviv and is seated in the plane next to Walīd. Their conversation covers issues of identity, cultural memory, and shared humanity. After arrival the novel follows Walīd’s journey into Gaza after crossing several checkpoints. After 40 years of absence, Walīd is shocked to see its changes: destroyed villages, villages whose name has become Hebrew, Israeli settlements, and increased Islamic conservatism (reference) (also in M: Movement: (E)Migration, Refugees and Return: Return to Palestine).
- Edited by ʿĀṭif Abū Sayf (written elsewhere as Atef Abu Saif, 1973-, Palestine), this collection of short stories titled Ḥayāh Mayitāh – Qiṣaṣ min Ghazah (2013, English trans. The Book of Gaza, 2014) presents different stories from ten writers from Gaza. The stories are from different time periods and address a variety of topics, among others Gaza as a nation and its issues, the relationship with Israel and with Jews, and the role of women in Gazan society (reference). The Book of Gaza is part of Comma Press’ ‘Reading the City’ collection that also includes The Book of Khartoum and The Book of Cairo (also in C: Cities: Palestine: Gaza)
- Atef Abu Saif (written elsewhere as ʿĀṭif Abū Sayf, 1973-, Palestine) – The Drone Eats with Me: Diaries from a City Under Fire (2015). Written originally in English during the summer of 2014, this diary describes the writer’s life in Gaza under Israel’s 51-day siege following the killing of three Israeli teenagers. This led to more than 2.000 deaths in Gaza and more than 10.000 wounded. The eye-witness accounts in The Drone Eats with Me were published earlier in newpapers like The Guardian and The New York Times (also in 2014 Israeli Bombing of Gaza).
Refrences:
In order of appearance
- Tarek El-Ariss. 2017. “Teaching humor in Arabic Literature and Film.” in Arabic Literature for the Classroom, eds. Muhsin J. al-Musawi, Routledge: New York, pp. 130-245 p. 140
- Brinda J. Mehta. 2012. “’Un-grievable’ Lives? Contesting Illegality in Suad Amiry’s ‘Border Diary’ ‘Nothing to Lose but Your Life: An 18-Hour Journey with Murad’.” JAL 43: 458-483
- ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm Ḥamūd. 2023. “Muʿīn Basīsū Yastakmil ‘Yawmiyyāt Gazza’.” www.manateq.net, 15 November 2023, https://manateq.net/%D9%85%D8%B9%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%A8%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%B3%D9%88-%D9%8A%D8%B3%D8%AA%D9%83%D9%85%D9%84-%D9%8A%D9%88%D9%85%D9%8A%D9%91%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%BA%D8%B2%D8%A9/ (last accessed 14 January 2024)
- Saʾīd Abū Ghazza. 2017. “Qirāʾah fī Riwāyah ‘Ghazzah 87’, li-Yusrā al-Ghūl.” www.maannews.net, 16 October 2017 https://www.maannews.net/news/925884.html (last accessed 2 May 2023)
- Anette Månsson. 2016. “Chapter 11: Claiming Home. Strategies of Realizing Place and Home in two Palestinian Novels,” in Representations and Visions of Homeland in Modern Arabic Literature, eds. Sebastian Günter and Stephan Milich. Georg Olms Verlag: Hildesheim, Zürich, New York. pp. 205-231, p. 210.
- Sabry Hafez. 1992. “The modern Arabic short story.” In Modern Arabic Literature. eds. Muhammad Mustafa Badawi. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 270- 329, p. 314
- Afnān al-Qāsim. 2016. “al-Ḥadāthah al-Zarqāʾ Dirāsah fī Adab Ghassān Kanafānī.” www.ahewar.org 2 December 2016 https://www.ahewar.org/debat/show.art.asp?aid=504841 (last accessed 29 October 2020)
- Samar Attar. 2016. “Chapter 9: Grieving over Home. A Mother or a Grave? The Vision of Homeland in Modern Arabic Literature” in Representations and Visions of Homeland in Modern Arabic Literature, eds. Sebastian Günter and Stephan Milich. Georg Olms Verlag: Hildesheim, Zürich, New York. pp. 155-183, p. 164.
- Roger Allen. 1992. “The Mature Arabic Novel Outside Egypt.” In Modern Arabic Literature. eds. Muhammad Mustafa Badawi. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 193-223, p. 202
- Anna Bernard. 2010. “Another Black September? Palestinian writing after 9/11.” Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 46(3): 349-358, p. 351, 352
- ʿĀdil al-Asṭah. 2017. “Adab al-ʿĀʾidīn/ al-Zāʾrīn: Ṣurat al-Yahūd Rabʿī al-Madhūn: al-Sayyidah min Til Abīb.” www.al-ayyam.ps, 9 November 2017 https://www.al-ayyam.ps/ar_page.php?id=f8b3506y260781318Yf8b3506 (last accessed 19 November 2021)
- Marcia Lynx Qualey. 2014. “‘The Book of Gaza’: Short Stories from Four Decades”. www.arablit.org, 16 July 2014, https://arablit.org/2014/07/26/the-book-of-gaza-short-stories-from-four-decades/ (last accessed on 19 November 2018)