Reading the World discussion

About the Book:
Set in Jaffa in 1947-51, this fable-like novel is a heartbreaking tale of young love during the beginning of the destruction of Palestine and displacement of its people.

At times darkly humorous and ironic but also profoundly moving, this novel based on a true story, follows the lives of a gifted 15-year-old mechanic, Subhi, and 13-year-old Shams, a peasant girl he hopes to marry one day. At first we see the prosperous life of this cosmopolitan city on the Mediterranean--with its old cinemas, lively cafes and brothels, open air markets, a bustling port and Jaffa's world famous orange groves--through the lives of the families of Subhi and Shams, but particularly through Subhi. As the story evolves, the indiscriminate bombing of Jaffa and the displacements of Palestinian families begin, and we get a fascinating though dark close-up of how those who remained survived. This novel is a cinematic, though devastating, account of one of the most dramatic and least known chapters of Palestinian history.

It is a portrait of a city and a people irrevocably changed."

About the author:
"Suad Amiry is a Palestinian writer and architect [and] has been living in Ramallah since 1981. Born in Damascus, Amiry grew up between Amman, Damascus, Beirut and Cairo. She studied architecture at the American University of Beirut, Michigan, US, and in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Amiry is author of the well-known book Sharon and My Mother-in-Law which has been translated into 17 languages and was awarded the prestigious 2004 Viareggio Prize.

She is the founder and Director of the Riwaq: Centre for Architectural Conservation. Amiry is the vice-president of the Board of Trustees of Birzeit University.

Her book Menopausal Palestine: Women at the Edge was published in India by Women Unlimited (2010) Her latest book Nothing to Lose But your Life, has been published by Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation April 2010. Amiry lives in Ramallah with her husband, the academic and political activist Salim Tamari."

Mother of Strangers by Suad Amiry

I am writing this in such a way that there are no big spoilers but will come back after others have posted their thoughts because some of the key components of this book are not mentioned below.
Mother of Strangers takes place during the last years of British rule over Palestine and the first years of “Partition” and the 1948 war with Israel. The book reflects a Palestinian POV and the Israeli aggressors are somewhat simplified into monsters. This categorization allows the story to be told without too much graphic representation of rapes, murders or torture, something that other Palestinian books I have read are soaked in. The author does not need to show us how horrible the new Jewish state was, she mostly just tells us, while educating me on some of the history of that initial conflict.
This book is largely a love story, the love of our Main Character, Subhi for Shams, a peasant girl whose father works for his father. However, there is also the love of the land including the famous orange groves of Jaffa, the old quarter of the ancient city, the love for one’s extended family and the deeply felt love of “home”, the essence of Palestine.
The novel has a strange structure in that the whole first half is a nice young adult romance and the set up of a particular theme regarding looking to the west for Palestine’s future. Subhi is a mechanic rather than someone who oversees the orange groves, he is rewarded for a particularly important job by being given an English suit, which he will wear to marry Shams. Both the author and the reader are aware that Subhi’s world is about to fall apart but the Palestinian characters in the novel are only predicting tragedy and defeat, not the loss of absolutely everything. The second half is an unfolding of that downhill spiral.
The strange structure of the novel reflects the sudden twists and turns of actual historic events. Ironically, although the Palestinians hated British rule, they realized that it was only the British who were keeping the Israeli’s out of Jaffa. When the British left, so did all order.
The quote at the end of the novel about Subhi’s suit was powerful.
More when others have read.

Thanks, Gail. I'm reading it now,think its pretty good so far.