Palestinian authors Suad Amiry and Randa Abdel Fattah celebrated the launch of their latest books on 30 April at al-Kotob Khan bookstore in Cairo. Book critics, journalists, fans and family members attended the event.
The former political activist and the half-Australian mother talked about their respective books, Nothing to Lose but Your Life and Henama Kan Lel Shawarei Asmaa (Where the Streets had a Name). They also talked about their experiences battling for the Palestinian cause. Both writers published their latest books with Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing (BQFP).
Both books tell of two journeys within Palestine, which are long and threatening but also fun and rich. In Henama Kan Lel Shawarei Asmaa, the journey is by 13-year-old Hayaat and her best friend Samy. In Nothing to Lose but Your Life, the author tells the story of her journey accompanied by Murad, her gardener, her brother, and some friends. Both books begin with a map plotting the route of the journey.
Checkpoints play a major role in these journeys, as obstacles to our heroes and symbols of the everlasting Israeli injustice. Hayaat’s trip starts in Bethlehem with the intent of traveling to Jerusalem, while Amiry and her companions depart Ramallah for Petah Tikva. As Amiry ironically states, “Checkpoints separating Palestine from Palestine.”
The books touch on a side of Palestine that we do not see in the news; the human side, the daily errand, grocery shopping, weddings and game nights. As readers, we also see the soldiers, the checkpoints, the dusty roads and the old buses. Both books offer a delightful combination of humor and tragedy.
Henama Kan Lel Shawarei Asmaa is translated from formal Arabic with a Shami twist (Palestinian dialect), giving it an air of authenticity and credibility. Although Nothing to Lose but Your Life was written in English, it is clear to the reader that the writer is Arab, even more so, Palestinian. The humor in Amiry’s writing is very clearly Arab.
“I still can’t imagine book events. I am not a sophisticated writer yet,” says Amiry, adding that her background as an architect prevented her from being the imaginative person she aspired to become. She says that her book, Nothing to Lose but Your Life (BQFP, 2010), was inspired by her 21-year-old gardener, Murad, and the depiction of her intriguing trip to ‘the other side’ to look for work.
“I pulled my hair back and covered it; put on a pair of pants and a shirt that belonged to [her husband] Selim, and I took off with 24 Palestinian workers. When we reached our final destination, we were only four,” the Ramallah-based writer recalls. Amiry goes on to recount how she left her house one dark night: “It took us 18 hours to travel 35 kilometers.” The group travelled by bus and by foot and was attacked by Israelis who saw them as trespassers on their own land.
“I visited Palestine once in 2000,” says half-Australian mother, Abdel Fattah. The trip proved to be life changing for this human rights activist who, for the first time, saw the humiliation suffered by Palestinians at every Israeli checkpoint in Palestine.
“If I had used the typical, non-fictional, journalistic approach, I wouldn’t have sold more than five copies in Australia,” explains Abdel Fattah, noting that Australia is an “unswerving ally” of Israel.
The young writer explains that the magical ingredient of her book, Where the Streets Had a Name (BQFP, 2010), is humor. “I basically looked for comedy in an extremely tragic situation. Shakespeare taught us that,” says the 30-year-old author. The book is about the journey of Hayaat and Samy to Jerusalem to get a handful of soil to save the life of Hayaat’s sick grandmother.
“We bored the world,” adds Amiry laughingly. The Palestinian cause was overused and exhausted: “Enough of the refugees, the camps, the poverty and the shame,” she says. It is about time that the world realizes “we are a people that love life and not death,” concludes the American University in Beirut graduate.
The Cairo launch comes as part of an international tour to celebrate the new books. The Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation was established by Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser, wife of the Emir of Qatar. Its goal is to promote Arabic books and writers, encourage children to read and inspire other young authors.
Suad Amiry’s previous book, Sharon and My Mother-in-Law (Granta Publications, 2008) was translated into 11 languages and was a bestseller in France. She is also the founder of Riwaq, a center working to protect Palestine’s architectural heritage.
A Melbourne University graduate, Randa Abdel Fattah lives in Sydney. She wrote Does my Head Look Big in This (Powells’ Books, 2006) and Ten Things I Hate About Me (Pan Macmillan Australia, 2005). Abdel Fattah is also a media liaison officer at the Islamic Council of Victoria.
Both books are available at al-Kotob Khan.
