Mother of Strangers
A Novel
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4.8 • 4 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR from NPR • Set in Jaffa in between 1947 and 1951, this “fable-like historical novel of young love ... darkly humorous and touching” (Oprah Daily) is based on a true story during the beginning of the destruction of Palestine and displacement of its people.
Based on the true story of two Jaffa teenagers, Mother of Strangers follows the daily lives of Subhi, a fifteen-year-old mechanic, and Shams, the thirteen-year-old student he hopes to marry one day. In this prosperous and cosmopolitan port city, with its bustling markets, cinemas, and cafés on the hills overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, we meet many other unforgettable characters as well, including Khawaja Michael, the elegant and successful owner of orange groves above the harbor; Mr. Hassan, the tailor who makes Subhi’s treasured English suit, which he hopes will change his life; and the very mischievous and outrageous Uncle Habeeb, who insists on introducing Subhi to the local bordello.
With a thriving orange export business, Jaffa had always been a city welcoming to outsiders—the “Mother of Strangers”—where Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived peacefully together. Once the bombardment of the city begins in April 1948, Suad Amiry gives us the grim but fascinating details of the shock, panic, and destruction that ensues. Jaffa becomes unrecognizable, with neighborhoods flattened, families removed from their homes and separated, and those who remain in constant danger of arrest and incarceration. Most of the population flees eastward to Jordan or by sea to Lebanon in the north or to Egypt and Gaza in the south. Subhi and Shams will never see each other again.
Suad Amiry has written a vivid and devastating account of a seminal moment in the history of the Middle East—the beginning of the end of Palestine and a portrait of a city irrevocably changed.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Amiry's stirring debut novel (after the memoir My Damascus) follows the young love between two Palestinians whose families become displaced during the 1947–1948 civil war. Subhi, a 15-year-old mechanic whiz, is sent to solve an irrigation problem with the orange groves of one of the richest merchants in the port city of Jaffa. For his work, Subhi earns an elegant English suit, which he dreams of wearing at his wedding to Shams, a peasant girl whose father works for Subhi's. Wearing the suit, Subhi visits Jaffa's upscale cafés, coffee shops, and cinemas, and his uncle takes him to a brothel. Over the course of a monthlong summer festival, Subhi hangs around and makes his feelings known to Shams; they kiss, but their encounter is fleeting, as Subhi worries his parents wouldn't approve. Meanwhile, Britain's withdrawal and plans to partition the country into Jewish and Arab states grips the city with fear as hostilities escalate. Three days of shelling by the Jewish militia in 1948 decimates the city, displacing thousands, and in the chaos, Subhi is arrested and Shams and her family flee as refugees but get separated. Though the end might feel a bit rushed, the characters feel achingly alive. Amiry's eye-opening story will keep readers turning the pages.
