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4.0 

Going Home

By Raja Shehadeh
Going Home by Raja Shehadeh digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

Winner, Moore Prize for Human Rights Writing

In a dazzling mix of reportage, analysis, and memoir, the leading Palestinian writer of our time reflects on aging, failure, the occupation, and the changing face of Ramallah

"Few Palestinians have opened their minds and their hearts with such frankness."
The New York Times

In Going Home, Raja Shehadeh, the Orwell Prize–winning author of Palestinian Walks, takes us on a series of journeys around his hometown of Ramallah. Set in a single day—the day that happens to be the fiftieth anniversary of Israel's occupation of the West Bank—the book is a powerful and moving record and chronicle of the changing face of his city.

Here is a city whose green spaces—gardens and hills crowned with olive trees— have been replaced by tower blocks and concrete lots; where the Israeli occupation has further entrenched itself in every aspect of movement, from the roads that can and cannot be used to the bureaucratic barriers that prevent people leaving the West Bank. Here also is a city that is culturally shifting, where Islam is taking a more prominent role in people's everyday and political lives and in the geography of the city.

A penetrating evocation of memory, pain, and place that is lightened by everyday joys such as delightful accounts of shared meals and gardening, Going Home is perhaps Raja Shehadeh's most moving and painfully visceral addition to his series of personal histories of the occupation, confirming Rachel Kushner's judgment that "Shehadeh is a buoy in a sea of bleakness."

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6 Reviews

4.0
Thinking Face“Shehadeh is a beautiful writer. i liked the mix of personal, political, and cultural narratives he used to illustrate his walk through his hometown of Ramallah. i was easily carried along on his descriptive imagery, and enjoyed how well he wove together the various threads of his experience. i can’t handle nonfiction unless it has a strong narrative thread - and ideally a personal bent to it - and this was a smooth, informative read.”
LikeableMultilayeredImmersive world-buildingThought-provokingBeautifully-writtenDescriptive
““Now, when I look back over my life, I can see that the occupation has provided me with an immense amount of work and great challenges, not only in how to resist but in how to live under its ruthless matrix of control as a free man refusing to be denied the joys of life.””
“This is not a book you read for an engaging, fast-paced ride. This is a firsthand view of Palestine from Raja Shehadeh’s eyes, who was a teenager when the Israeli occupation started in 1967. As he walks to and from work, he speaks on what he sees, and what has been. It paints a four-dimensional picture of real people and their lives; what they looked like/look like over 50 years of change and loss. It humanizes all of these things we hear or read about in the news- the majority of the people affected being those who just want to live peaceful, happy lives without an iron grip of oppression. It is a slow read, with details some may find unnecessary (Raja is a lover of plants and describes the neighborhood gardens in detail), but I found that it brought Ramallah to life for me. I learned a lot of things, and I have even more subjects that I would like to research now, such as the Oslo Accords and Yasser Arafat. I’m glad I read this book. Too often we jump to opinions without trying to understand the history of how things have come to be, as well as forget about our fellow humans’ very real plights.”
Change and growThought-provokingDescriptiveOriginal

About Raja Shehadeh

Considered Palestine's leading writer, Raja Shehadeh is a writer, lawyer, and the founder of the pioneering Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq. He is the author of several books including the 2008 Orwell Prize–winning Palestinian Walks as well as Where the Line Is Drawn and Going Home (both from The New Press). He has written for the New York Times, the New Yorker, Granta, and other publications. He lives in Ramallah, Palestine.

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