Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
Track Changes
Track Changes | Sayed Kashua
1 post | 2 read
Hailed as an unusually gifted storyteller with exceptional insight (Jewish Tribune), Bernstein award-winning writer Sayed Kashua presents his masterful fourth novel Track Changes which follows an Arab-Israeli man as he reckons with the weight of his past, his memories, and his cultural identity. Having emigrated to America years before, a nameless memoirist now residing in Illinois receives word that his estranged father, whom he has not spoken to in fourteen years, is dying. Leaving his wife and their three children, he returns to Jerusalem and to his hometown of Tira in Palestine to be by his familys side. But few are happy to see him back and, geographically and emotionally displaced, he feels more alienated from his life than ever. Sitting by his fathers hospital bed, the memoirist begins to remember long-buried traumas, the root causes of his fallout with his family, the catalyst for his marriage and its recent dissolution, and his strained relationships with his childrenall of which is strangely linked to a short story he published years ago about a young girl named Palestine. As he plunges deeper into his memory and recounts the history of his land and his love, the lines between truth and lies, fact and fiction become increasingly blurred. Track Changes is a stunningly original, poignant, and captivating exploration of alienation, love, country, and memory by one of the most important writers at work today.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
Pick icon
100%
review
ReadingEnvy
Track Changes | Sayed Kashua
post image
Mehso-so

An unnamed Palestinian narrator, originally from Tira, travels home in a rush to be with his father during his passing. As the reader you know he is hesitant to be back, and you get the sense it might even be dangerous, but it takes a while for those details to unfold.⤵️

ReadingEnvy The narrator also has an interesting job where because of his language and writing skills, he is hired by others to write their memoirs or biographies. What people don't seem to catch is how he writes details of his own life into their stories, and as he does those memories seem to leave him. He also has a difficult relationship to his wife, who is a tenure-track professor in the United States.⤵️ 5y
ReadingEnvy I previously read SECOND PERSON SINGULAR by this same author for my book club, and it was more humorous. The publisher describes this one as more personal to the author's experiences.
.
I had a review copy from the publisher through Edelweiss, and it came out January 14, 2020
5y
See All 7 Comments
kspenmoll Beautiful cover. Nice review. 5y
DrexEdit So the title reminds me of the editing feature in MS Word--track changes. It's that really what the book is about? Or have I been working to long today? 😊😁 5y
aeeklund @DrexEdit That was exactly my thought, too! 5y
ReadingEnvy @DrexEdit yeah it's in there because he's a writer and adds his own memories, then accepts the changes? Also his life has changed as a refugee of sorts. 5y
47 likes7 comments