Palestinian Cartographies—a review of Mapping My Return
Maps are narratives of the past, present, and future, powerful chronicles of presence and absence, ownership and theft, truth and lies.
memoir
Brutally Honest Exploration of Taboo Subjects in Empty Cages
A novel that explores taboo subjects with exceptional craftsmanship, while reconstructing the “self” from pain and fragmented identities.
Doaa: From a Dreamworld to the Ashes of Displacement
A Gaza writer's creative, hopeful sister struggles to get her degree and build a family in the midst of a grinding war.
Looking for a Job, Living and Dying in Iran: The Logistics of Going Back
Not even escalating tensions between Israel and Iran could stop one wayward Iranian from returning home to see his father one last time.
Courage and Compassion, a Memoir of War and its Aftermath
Nektaria Anastasiadou reviews polyglot Tony Molho's memoir about the Holocaust in Greece and his family history.
Do or Despair: Political Action in My Great Arab Melancholy
Katie Logan reviews Lamia Ziadé's latest illustrated volume that prompts a reckoning with the concept of melancholy.
Rotten Evidence: Ahmed Naji Writes About Writing in Prison
In tone, "Rotten Evidence" is cynical, bitterly funny, and oftentimes tender without ever being sentimental, writes Lina Mounzer.
Laila Halaby’s The Weight of Ghosts is a Haunting Memoir
Thérèse Soukkar Chehade reviews Laila Halaby's memoir about coming to terms with the trauma of losing her first son.
An Interview with with Graphic Memoirist Malaka Gharib
Rusha Rafeek interviews graphic memoirist Malaka Gharib about her Arab American coming of age story.
Book Review: “The Go-Between” by Osman Yousefzada
Hannah Fox reviews the Birmingham memoir by fashion artist Osman Yousefzada.
“Gluttony” from Abbas Beydoun’s “Frankenstein’s Mirrors”
Lebanese poet-novelist Abbas Baydoun reflects in an autobiographical mode on the melancholy of language and existence, while contemplating sweets.
Heba Hayek’s Gaza Memories
Shereen Malherbe reviews a new book from a first-time Gazan author based in London.