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Table of Contents
About the Book
“Precise, courageous, and dazzling.” —Teju Cole, author of Open City
From the author of the “masterful” (Fatima Bhutto, author of The Runaways) international bestseller Mornings in Jenin, a powerful, passionate story set in Gaza, of a family severed by colonialism, with a new introduction from Hala Alyan.
In the small Palestinian farming village of Beit Daras, the women of the Baraka family invite shock. Nazmiyeh is brazen and fiercely protective of her clairvoyant little sister, Mariam, and of their mother, Um Mahmoud, known for the fearsome spirit that sometimes possesses her.
When the family is forced by the newly formed State of Israel to leave their ancestral home, only Nazmiyeh and her brother survive the long road to Gaza. Amidst the violence and fragility of the refugee camp, Nazmiyeh builds a family, navigates crises, and nurtures what remains of Beit Daras’s community. But her brother continues his exile’s journey to America, where, upon his death, his granddaughter Nur grows up alone, in a different kind of exile. That is, until her longing for family and roots eventually beckon her to Gaza in this “luminous” (The Independent) and “powerful read” (Financial Times).
From the author of the “masterful” (Fatima Bhutto, author of The Runaways) international bestseller Mornings in Jenin, a powerful, passionate story set in Gaza, of a family severed by colonialism, with a new introduction from Hala Alyan.
In the small Palestinian farming village of Beit Daras, the women of the Baraka family invite shock. Nazmiyeh is brazen and fiercely protective of her clairvoyant little sister, Mariam, and of their mother, Um Mahmoud, known for the fearsome spirit that sometimes possesses her.
When the family is forced by the newly formed State of Israel to leave their ancestral home, only Nazmiyeh and her brother survive the long road to Gaza. Amidst the violence and fragility of the refugee camp, Nazmiyeh builds a family, navigates crises, and nurtures what remains of Beit Daras’s community. But her brother continues his exile’s journey to America, where, upon his death, his granddaughter Nur grows up alone, in a different kind of exile. That is, until her longing for family and roots eventually beckon her to Gaza in this “luminous” (The Independent) and “powerful read” (Financial Times).
About the Author
Photograph by T. Sauppe
susan abulhawa is a novelist, poet, essayist, scientist, mother, and activist. She was born to refugees of the Six-Day War of 1967, when her family’s land was seized and Israel captured what remained of Palestine. Her debut novel, Mornings in Jenin, translated into thirty languages, has sold over a million copies worldwide and is considered a classic in Palestinian literature. Her other works include The Blue Between Sky and Water and Against the Loveless World, an Aspen Words Literary Prize and Atheneum Prize finalist and winner of the Arab American Book Award and the Palestine Book Award, along with, most recently, the short story collection she edited of writers from Gaza, Every Moment is a Life. abulhawa is the founder of Playgrounds for Palestine, a children’s organization dedicated to uplifting Palestinian children.
Product Details
- Publisher: Washington Square Press (September 29, 2026)
- Length: 320 pages
- ISBN13: 9781668242094
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Raves and Reviews
"The story Susan Abulhawa tells in this marvelous novel is hard to bear but impossible to ignore. Her vision is precise, courageous, and dazzling."
—Teju Cole
"Abulhawa's prose is luminous; her control of a complex weaving of narrative voices-young and old, male and female, magical and real-is masterful."
—The Independent
"[Abulhawa] is a fine observer of female kinship ... A powerful read."
—Financial Times
"Abulhawa surprises us by continually unfolding new stories ...These are secrets we need to know, secrets that will educate us about ourselves, and Gaza. "
—The Guardian
"Fierce and powerful and deeply moving, you will want to read it again and again."
—Marxist Review
"Magical ... The way the story is told is haunting. It pulls you in and you want to never emerge."
—The Asian Age
"A family saga with global reach, these stories of fortune tellers, fighters, little girls and old women, jump off the page and into the soul and reach far beyond any headline or statistic, past the head, to the heart."
—Laleh Khadivi, author of The Age of Orphans and The Walking
"The publication of Susan Abulhawa's The Blue Between Sky and Water marks a giant step in the development of Palestinian fiction. The book is a great feat of imagination and storytelling."
—Raja Shehadeh, author of Strangers in the House
Resources and Downloads
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Book Cover Image (jpg): The Blue Between Sky and Water
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Author Photo (jpg): susan abulhawa Photograph by T. Sauppe(0.1 MB)
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