Out of It by Selma Dabbagh

I’ve been meaning to read Selma Dabbagh’s novel Out of It for ages, and finally finished it last night, sad it was over. Dabbagh is a Palestinian British author and editor of anthology We Wrote in Symbols. Her writing is nothing short of beautiful and highly crafted, and always inspires me as a writer.

Out of It is set in Gaza in what appears to be the mid 2000’s, just before Hamas took over control. Against the backdrop of inner conflict between the PLO and an Islamist group, the members of the Mujahed family appear to live quite separate lives even though they’re in one household. Iman is a teacher who is frustrated at the lack of real social action by the Women’s Committee, Rashid is mostly high on marijuana, and Sabri’s life focus is writing a history of Palestine in the aftermath of losing his wife and baby son. By chance both Rashid and Iman find a way out of Gaza, but in their new countries they both soon come to realise that Gaza hasn’t left them. As the plot thickens so do family secrets reveal themselves.

One of the most striking things for me reading the book was how similar it reads to the current situation in Gaza - as Dabbagh writes about Israeli strikes and demolitions, the recent Israeli attacks on Gaza played out in my mind. Also very interesting (and frustrating!) was how the white English characters in the novel were obsessed with trying to get siblings Rashid and Iman to only talk about trauma and violence - it echoes many posts I’ve seen recently by Palestinians regarding the West’s fascination with trauma in the country. This is something Layla Al Ammar also explores in the context of Syria in her novel Silence is a Sense.