The Palestinians, confront two enemies after First World War: the British Mandate and the Zionist movement. They come to realize they were betrayed by a power that "fulfilled their promises to the Jews and reneged on their promises to the Arabs." Khalifeh brings to the forefront the inner conflicts of Palestinian society as it struggles to affirm its cultural and national identity, and maintain normalcy in otherwise abnormal circumstances.

In the Nagib Mahfouz award-winning novel 2006, the celebrated Palestinian Sahar Khlaifeh has penned what is at once a re-casting of the story of the Holy Family, a lyrical ode to Arab Jerusalem, and a call for liberation, not just of a nation but for the individual women and men who inhabit it. After abandoning his beloved Mariam when she falls pregnant, and escaping her brothers' bullets, Ibrahim abandons his own ideals and dreams of becoming a novelist, opting instead to follow his father's wishes, and seek wealth and commercial success abroad. Thirty years later, lonely and disillusioned,...