Susan Abulhawa - MORNINGS IN JENIN

review by Corinna Christopher on show 5th Jan 2012

To quote from the back cover “this is a devastating novel of love and loss, war and oppression, heartbreak and hope, spanning five generations of one of the most intractable conflicts of our time”

Mornings in Jenin follows 4 generations of the Abulheja family through violence and upheaval in their homeland, The family have deep roots in Ein Hod, a tranquil village of olive farmers. It starts in 1948 when Israel is declared a state and the entire community of Ein Hod is forced to move to a refugee camp in Jenin. Dalia and Hasan have two sons and one of them is snatched away by an Israeli soldier who is filled with jealousy that his wife has no son. This Palestinian boy Ismael is brought up as David a Jewish son.

Later on Dalia and Hasan have a daughter Amal and most of the subsequent story is told through her eyes. In order to pursue her education she travels to America but loses almost everyone she loves in the Lebanon war. She has to raise her daughter Sara by herself far from her homeland. A visit from her long-lost brother David restores her identity and results in a return trip to the Middle East with disastrous consequences .

This is an excerpt from Amal’s thoughts on her return to Jenin. “The air was busy, everything seemed to move and scurry, even children played nervously. Young men washed clean of dreams, ran in the alleyways with rifles strapped to their bodies. They were preparing for the inevitable, stocking up on food, setting up defenses, booby traps, and sandbags against the coming storm. Suicide bombers locking their belts, lovers locking their arms, little girls locking their knees and mothers packing their children into the innermost, lower most rooms”.

This is a very moving and powerful story which resonates with authenticity and passion. The suffering of these people is emotionally affecting to the reader. The events related have happened in my lifetime and made me realise how little I have understood this complex situation. This book has certainly opened my eyes to the injustices that the Palestine people have endured and sadly at this moment in time there is still no solution to this endless retaliatory killing.

The author 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, including Jerusalem. She moved to the U.S.A. as a teenager where she established a career in medical science. She is involved with an organisation to uphold Play for Palestine children This is her first novel and is being published in 19 countries. She lives in Pennsylvania with her daughter.

Susan Abulhawa – Mornings in Jenin

Review by showhost

The characters are fictitious but the history and events are not.  If you enjoyed the Kite runner and A Thousand splendid suns then read this - similar but based in Palestine not Afghanistan.

It begins in a small village, east of Haifa, which was then in Palestine but is now in Israel.  The villagers are farmers of figs and olive trees as their families have been for over 400 years.  It’s 1941 and the war in Europe is raging.  We follow the family of Hassan.  His friendship with Ari, a Jewish boy he had become friends with in 1937 when his family had fled germany and rented a home in Palestine.  They were both 12 years old then.

Zionist had begun killing Palestinians and British in sniper attacks but by 1947 it was getting worse.  Jewish refugees were flooding in and the Zionist recruiting and strengthening their army.  The Zionist are backed by the UN and America to take land to call their Homeland – to take Palestine “a land without people”.

There are anti-zionist among the Jewish people and many felt it wrong what they were doing but they needed a country to belong to, especially after the atrocities endured in the Holocaust.  Once the British pull out the land is taken over and for those people life will never be the same again.

Reading this book made me aware of events that I never knew about and answers some questions as to why the conflict exists out there and what drives them.  Yes, it was written by a Palestinian so it would lean in their favour and she doesn't dwell on the atrocities they might have done in retaliation but a story that had to be told.

 

As Michael Palin wrote “this is a powerful & passionate novel”.  

It is and it will make you think long after you have finished dreading it.  I definitely recommend reading this book and it would make a very good discussion for book groups.