Novel Friends

Saturday, April 24, 2010

I had not heard anything about this book but happened across it in the “staff recommendations” section of Dubray Books and it sounded interesting. To read the publisher’s write-up you would be led to believe this book is the story of two brothers separated, one to grow up as a Palestinian and one an Israeli. But in actual fact there is an awful lot more to this book.

The story is narrated by Amal, a Palestinian girl born in the refugee camp in Jenin her family fled to following the occupation of their anestral village of Ein Hod in 1948. Although Amal has never known any other home, she senses the heartache and longing of her family and neighbours for their lost home where families have lived and worked the land for over 40 generations. That all changed one fateful day in 1948 after the UN declared the establishment of the Israeli state in what had been British-ruled Palestine since the end of WW1.

At first Amal’s family believe their refugee status is only temporary but when their tents become one story houses which become two story houses, they understand that the hope of returning to Ein Hod is becoming more and more futile. When Amal is a young teenager, Israel attack Egypt starting the 6 day war of 1967 leading to the decimation and then occupation of Jenin by Israeli soldiers. Amal’s relatives persuade her to move to an orphanage in Jerusalem where she can get a good education and from there she gets a scolarship to America where she tries to start a new life and put Palestine behind her. However, it is always in her heart and calls to her to return…