I love Isabella Hammad’s writing in this so naturally I now need to read everything she’s written. This is one is those books that I didn’t want to end and could probably read a series about Mariam, who I think might be my favourite character.

Sonia is a British Palestinian who returns to her ancestral home of Haifa to visit her sister Haneen who is a lecturer at an Israeli university. Through Haneen Sonia meets Mariam who is a director who wants to direct a performance of Hamlet in the West Bank. Through their stories we explore the machinations of ‘48, the West Bank and the diaspora and what it means to be a Palestinian depending on where you were born, what passport you hold and what area you live in. You don’t often get stories from a Palestinian on the ‘inside’ (or perhaps you do but I’m yet to read them) which is an interesting dynamic.

At it’s heart I think this is about those different dynamics, family politics, what it means to be a woman, what it means to be in the diaspora and what it means to be human ultimately especially under such difficult circumstances that Palestinian’s are forced to live under.