Author: Susan Abulhava
Publisher:Bloomsbury
Pages: 352
Price:Rs 350
Genre: Historic fiction
ISBN:1408809486
Rating:4 out of 5
Source: Personal
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Summary:
The novel is about the tangled lives of Palestininan Abulheja family through the eyes of Amal the youngest daughter of the family..Born into loss life of somber she keeps her life ahead of of this distraught of the family yet being deeply rooted into it..The struggle is over 60 years of Palestini-Isreali conflict expanding over four generations..The family bears immense torture at the hands of Zionist Israelis..That holds in store is the gripping story written by Susan Abulhava..
Review:
I love the books that pulls me into the story letting me to move around the characters as part of my own life , challenging me by their vantage , spreading happiness around and at times pulling across strings of melancholy..Most of the books portray the Israeli part of the history and their struggle., there were only few that went by the other part of the coin and that is the main reason why I picked this..I am only delighted about my choice...The novel unfolds in Ein Hod,every detail of this village is captivating , unfortunately this very beautiful village is succumbed to human barbarity..Losing a child is a biggest torture a mother can endure still Amal's mother holds on with hope and for her other children..She stands tall as an epitome of love..I love historic writings though I haven't explored the horizon much, yet I am fascinated by it already...Amal's journey traverses from Jerusalem to Lebanon to the loneliness in United states...The novel is desolating when a brother face each other as enemies of the opposite army.. Family's bonding, its love is alluringly written through the characters as they nurture each other with love during the difficult times bestowed upon them by the Israeli government and army..Love for ones land is so wonderfully written in the novel one such character is of Haj Yehya who goes to tend his olive groove despite the army threat to shoot bringing back his hard labour to his family during olive harvest season...Amal loses her brothers one as a soldier who always faces hardships and another being snatched off from her mother as a kid..Amal grows up in America with good education backed by scholarship yet she longs to be in her homeland, moving to Lebanon life seems good until by twist of fates she finds herself alone raising her daughter as a single mother...Her older brother finds her and thus unfolds her past to Sara..After Amal its through Sara a hope for her future lingers upon as the novel closes..I love Susan's writing because it affected me in so many layers of my thoughts...Those reading by Amal's father even after the hard labor day is so full of love and care... The greatest achievement of the book is that , the reader is bridged to the character throughout the novel...The book is a hovering tale of bereavement, that would leave you distorted..
Note:
This book was originally publishes as "Scar of David " in 2006.After slight editing Bloomsbury Publishing renamed it as "mornings in Jenin " in 2010..
Another interesting looking book VB. Your commentary is enjoyable and informative. I agree with your assessment that there are far too few of these written from the Palestinian point of view.
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