Out of It
A Novel
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1.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Moving from Palestine to London to the Gulf, this unique novel brilliantly depicts modern-day family life in Gaza.
Gaza is being bombed. Rashid-a young, clever Palestinian-has been smoking grass on the roof watching it happen when he gets the email he has been desperate for: he's won a scholarship to London. Rashid's sister, Iman, frustrated by the atrocities and inaction around her, is beginning to take an interest in an Islamic resistance group. Sabri, their intellectual older brother, is working on a history of Palestine from his wheelchair while their mother pickles vegetables and feuds with the neighbors.
Out of It follows the lives of Rashid and Iman as they try to forge places for themselves in the midst of occupation, the growing divide between Palestinian factions, and the rise of fundamentalism. Written with extraordinary humanity and humor, and moving between Gaza, London, and the Gulf, this book redefines Palestine and its people.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this important and captivating debut novel, the ravages of occupied Gaza alternately unite and undo a proud and fiercely intellectual Palestinian family, the Mujaheds. As their history unfolds and their future is etched out against a violent and unknowable landscape, the struggle for a voice becomes equally more urgent and more elusive. Regrettably, the book begins in awkward spurts, with names, places, and memories revolving too fast for readers to make sense of who's who. But once the family is established Iman, the sister, who doesn't cover her hair; Sabri, the younger brother, whose legs were lost to a car bomb; and Rashid, the other brother, who's going to London on scholarship the book picks up momentum and the prose builds with increasing clarity. Incidental moments are often the most disarming and exquisite. Early on, Iman acquires a bouquet of flowers that she absentmindedly passes off to a shopkeeper, who pulls back at the sight: "Oh, no, miss. I can't. They take too much water." While horrendous acts of violence, both at the hands of the Israelis and as a result of Palestinian infighting, threaten and destroy, it is in the indignity of not being able to water flowers that despair becomes tangible and that the tragic loss of life and culture resonates most profoundly.
