Welcome to Litsy!

☕🍂

Beautiful and interesting story. Difficult to navigate at time - dense language. The ending is open - one suspects the worst, but if so, the players go out in a loving blaze of glory

Favorites in order

1. The Land of Sad Oranges
2. Letter from Gaza
3. The Falcon
4. A Hand in the Grave
5. Umm Saad
6. If you were a Horse
7. Men in the Sun

I‘m going to be a party pooper. I read it all but either it all went over my head or it just didn‘t resonate at all with me or both. I got a glimpse of the restrictions and omnipresent danger imposed by Israel on the Palestinians, for sure. But the rest of it did not capture any emotion from me other than “when will I finish this damn thing?” Shortlisted on the Women‘s Prize list, I‘m delighted that Brotherless Night won.

#SummerSouls Day 15: Kanafani wrote in a matter-of-fact yet also highly intimate manner – like stories that are being whispered around a #Camp #campfire. Most are horror stories that one would not imagine could happen to another human being – yet these stories are snapshots of actual lived experiences of people, who are still pretty much going through what Kanafani had surfaced here. My review 4 yrs ago: https://wp.me/pDlzr-mKo

An actress who lives in London goes to back to Palestine to visit her sister and ends up taking part in a production of Hamlet. Slow moving but often intense, I liked this but wish I had gone with a print version over audio.

May reading roundup!
Finished up the #WomensPrizeForFiction short list with Soldier Sailor (3 ⭐) and Enter Ghost (4.5 ⭐)
And read from many different countries - England, Philippines, Ireland, Holland, US, France, Palestine.

Explored many different topics from Aliens running a donut shop, Shakespear in Palestine, Cain and god, and Teen slashers.

Change and Enter Ghost were my best fiction, Some People Need Killing and Houndred Years War best NF

Amazing. I am so glad I read the Hundred Years War before EG. It gave much needed context to the story. Hammad's writing is impeccable, she weaves the novel with stage/ play writing in an easily digestible way, she tells a story about real characters that were likable. The backbone of the story is about acting, and home. What is home, and what do you want to do with your life and can the coexist.

I think this is an important read even if it's not the most exciting thing ever. The narrator goes to visit her sister in Palestine and ends up playing Gertrude in an Arabic version of Hamlet. It's really the setting that takes this to the next level. Definitely recommend.

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Reading time in the North End.