“What he knew, he knew from books, and books lied, they made things prettier.”
― Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life
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when jane austen said "there are few people whom i really love, and still fewer of whom i think well" and when dostoyevsky said "the more i love mankind as a whole, the less i love individual people..."
• Palestinian literature recommendations - small books with a big impact •
Here’s a few recommendations for short reads. If you’re looking for small books to help you reach your reading goal before the end of the year or for when you need a shorter read to suit your time, these are all fairly quick reads but very impactful.
All Palestinian literature. Most of these recommendations are short story collections and mostly translated from Arabic. They each show the different ways the Israeli occupation has affected Palestinians. From the start of the Nakba, to the blockaded Gaza Strip, to Palestinians refugees in the diaspora.
* Shatila Stories published by Peirene Press, nine contributors (Palestinian and Syrian): Omar Khaled Ahmad, Nibal AlAlow, Safa Khaled Algharbawi, Omar Abdellatif Alndaf, Rayan Mohamad Sukkar, Safiya Badran, Fatima Omar Ghazawi, Samih Mahmoud, Hiba Mareb. Translated by Nashwa Gowanlock
* Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories by Ghassan Kanafani, translated by Hilary Kilpatrick
* The Sea Cloak and Other Stories by Nayrouz Qarmout, translated by Perween Richards
* Minor Detail by Adania Shibli, translated by Elisabeth Jaquette
* The Book of Ramallah edited by Maya Abu Al-Hayat, various translators
Have you read any of these? Are there others any you would add to the list or recommend me to read? The Book of Gaza is one I have on my radar that I want to read at some point.
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essayista Which literary genres do you prefer reading? I personally like classics, (not romance though), feminist fiction, writing and mental health non-fiction, ancient Greek-Roman mythology and thrillers.
“And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone.”
Madeline Miller - The Song of Achilles
