Author of the Month: Raja Shehadeh
Selected by the Bookshop
Our Author of the Month for March is the Palestinian lawyer, human rights activist and writer Raja Shehadeh.
Born into a prominent Palestinian Christian family in Ramallah in 1957, Shehadeh went on to co-found the human rights organization Al-Haq in 1979, one of the first human rights organizations in the Arab world. As a writer, his principal subject has been the intersection of the Palestinian landscape with the history and culture of its people. His first book for a popular readership, published in 2003, was When the Bulbul Stopped Singing and in 2008 his Palestinian Walks was awarded the Orwell Prize. His most recent work, co-written with Penny Johnson, is Forgotten: Searching for Palestine’s Hidden Places and Lost Memorials.
John Berger wrote of him: ‘Towards any proper understanding of history there are many small paths. I strongly suggest you walk with him.’ LRB US editor Adam Shatz writes of him: ‘Anguished and somewhat fragile, he is a man who, in spite of his understandable bitterness, has continued to dream of a future beyond the occupation … where Arabs and Jews would live as equals.’
From the publisher:
A searing reflection on the failures of Israel to treat Palestine and Palestinians as equals, as partners on the road to peace instead of genocide.When the state of Israel was formed in 1948, it precipitated the Nakba or 'disaster': the…
From the publisher:
As a young boy, Raja Shehadeh was entranced by a forbidden Israeli postage stamp in his uncle's album, intrigued by tales of a green land beyond the border.He couldn't have known then what Israel would come to mean to him, or to foresee the…
From the publisher:
A subtle psychological portrait of the author's relationship with his father during the twentieth-century battle for Palestinian human rights'Profoundly personal as well as historically significant ... In his moral clarity and baring of the…
From the publisher:
Over two decades of turmoil and change in the Middle East, steered via the history-soaked landscape of Palestine. This new edition includes a previously unpublished epigraph in the form of a walk.…
From the publisher:
'Palestine's greatest prose writer' Observer…
From the publisher:
"Shehadeh's books are like beacons held up against the darkness" Observer"A heartbreaking, hopeful look at how Palestinian culture endures" Irish Times Forgotten is a search for hidden or neglected memorials and places in historic Palestine…
From the publisher:
Raja Shehadeh was born into a successful Palestinian family with a beautiful house overlooking the Mediterranean. When the state of Israel was formed in 1948 the family were driven out to the provincial town of Ramallah. There Shehadeh grew…
From the publisher:
It is often the smallest details of daily life that tell us the most. And so it is under occupation in Palestine. What most of us take for granted has to be carefully thought about and planned for: When will the post be allowed to get…
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