A groundbreaking Palestinian novel by Sahar Khalifeh, first published in Arabic in 1976, set in the West Bank city of Nablus in 1972, six years after Israel instituted its occupation of the West Bank. The narrative follows two cousins, one a former worker in the Gulf who returns to Palestine as a member of the Palestinian armed resistance, the other a day laborer in Israel, exploring the social and political fractures of life under occupation. Essential for students of Arabic literature and Palestinian fiction, and for researchers studying the social dimensions of the 1967 occupation, debates surrounding collaboration and resistance, and the history of the Palestinian novel. Translated from its original Arabic by Trevor LeGassick and Elizabeth Fernea.
