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Illusion of Return
I could no longer resign myself to the idea that the past was unreal.
The nameless narrator of this startling novella believed himself to be under no a Palestinian refugee, he had escaped the deadly tumult of Lebanon—the roving militias and endlessly complicated religious violence—by having long ago fled to London. He knew he could never go back.
But then one day an old friend who had also escaped calls him and asks to meet at the airport on a stop-over on his way back to Lebanon. For the narrator, it summons up everything he thought he had suppressed, both the yearning to go home and the secret reason he can't.
Thus the reunion with his old friend becomes, for the narrator, a disturbing confrnotation. And as they plunge into diverging memories—his friend's frighteningly unreal, his own even more frighteningly too real— The Illusion of Return becomes a revealing and moving study of extremism and its brutalizing effect not only on nations but on the intimate lives of the individuals it touches.
The Contemporary Art of the Novella series is designed to highlight work by major authors from around the world. In most instances, as with Imre Kertész, it showcases work never before published; in others, books are reprised that should never have gone out of print. It is intended that the series feature many well-known authors and some exciting new discoveries. And as with the original series, The Art of the Novella, each book is a beautifully packaged and inexpensive volume meant to celebrate the form and its practitioners.
The nameless narrator of this startling novella believed himself to be under no a Palestinian refugee, he had escaped the deadly tumult of Lebanon—the roving militias and endlessly complicated religious violence—by having long ago fled to London. He knew he could never go back.
But then one day an old friend who had also escaped calls him and asks to meet at the airport on a stop-over on his way back to Lebanon. For the narrator, it summons up everything he thought he had suppressed, both the yearning to go home and the secret reason he can't.
Thus the reunion with his old friend becomes, for the narrator, a disturbing confrnotation. And as they plunge into diverging memories—his friend's frighteningly unreal, his own even more frighteningly too real— The Illusion of Return becomes a revealing and moving study of extremism and its brutalizing effect not only on nations but on the intimate lives of the individuals it touches.
The Contemporary Art of the Novella series is designed to highlight work by major authors from around the world. In most instances, as with Imre Kertész, it showcases work never before published; in others, books are reprised that should never have gone out of print. It is intended that the series feature many well-known authors and some exciting new discoveries. And as with the original series, The Art of the Novella, each book is a beautifully packaged and inexpensive volume meant to celebrate the form and its practitioners.
147 pages, Paperback
First published January 11, 2007
4 people are currently reading
149 people want to read
About the author
Samir El-Youssef
6 books9 followersSamir El-Youssef is Palestinian and was born in Rashidia refugee camp in southern Lebanon. He arrived in London in 1990 where he has been working as a journalist and novelist. In 2005 he won the Swedish
PEN-Tucholsky Award for promoting the cause of peace and freedom of speech in the Middle East.
PEN-Tucholsky Award for promoting the cause of peace and freedom of speech in the Middle East.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
January 17, 2019
Here's why I'm putting this on my "jewish-lit" shelf:
If you follow me on social media, you know that since the death of Israeli author Amos Oz I've spent a lot of time reading tributes and returning to Oz's interviews. His remarkable spirit made me wonder, "Who is the Palestinian Amos Oz?" Who is a writer/activist both idealistic and realistic, concerned for both his "own" people's well-being and the welfare of "the other side"? Who might make as great an impact on Palestinian readers as Oz has among Israeli Jews (and other Jews)?
I asked around a bit (quietly). A friend recommended this author/novel. And I'm grateful.
I'm still open to author/title suggestions on this count, by the way. Please share yours.
If you follow me on social media, you know that since the death of Israeli author Amos Oz I've spent a lot of time reading tributes and returning to Oz's interviews. His remarkable spirit made me wonder, "Who is the Palestinian Amos Oz?" Who is a writer/activist both idealistic and realistic, concerned for both his "own" people's well-being and the welfare of "the other side"? Who might make as great an impact on Palestinian readers as Oz has among Israeli Jews (and other Jews)?
I asked around a bit (quietly). A friend recommended this author/novel. And I'm grateful.
I'm still open to author/title suggestions on this count, by the way. Please share yours.
May 1, 2012
This 150-page novella could well be transposed into a stageplay, for the action is limited chiefly to a small cast of characters sitting together in a cafe and talking. They have ideas and stories to tell, there is conflict between them, and the revelations are paced in much the same way as a drama in which we gradually come to know the crisis points in each of their lives. Set in Beirut during the occupation of Lebanon by the Israelis in the 1980s, the novel is a blend of politics and the personal, remembered in flashback by the narrator years later and in another city and another country.
The narrative captures something of the anxiety felt among people living in a city under siege - where there is a high-risk mix of informers, collaborators, an occupying army, resistance fighters, and militias. It also captures nicely how people's daily lives and their relationships with one another carry on - for better or worse - despite these surroundings.
Three lives are lost during the telling of the story, all casualties of political differences resulting from the collision of two people's "right of return" - the Israelis and the displaced Palestinians. For the narrator, now living in London, there is something of a resolution of his mixed feelings about the past in a story relayed to him from a Polish Jew by a friend now living in America - as they meet to talk once more, this time in a cafe at Heathrow Airport. The book takes a little patience, as it unfolds rather slowly, but the ending is worth the wait.
The narrative captures something of the anxiety felt among people living in a city under siege - where there is a high-risk mix of informers, collaborators, an occupying army, resistance fighters, and militias. It also captures nicely how people's daily lives and their relationships with one another carry on - for better or worse - despite these surroundings.
Three lives are lost during the telling of the story, all casualties of political differences resulting from the collision of two people's "right of return" - the Israelis and the displaced Palestinians. For the narrator, now living in London, there is something of a resolution of his mixed feelings about the past in a story relayed to him from a Polish Jew by a friend now living in America - as they meet to talk once more, this time in a cafe at Heathrow Airport. The book takes a little patience, as it unfolds rather slowly, but the ending is worth the wait.
August 15, 2017
A deft exploration of the personal distortions of memory and perspective that emerge out of the literal and metaphoric geography of crisis. The language is at times slightly more programmatic than the book's ambitions require but overall El-Youssef admirably evokes his themes through precision and rhetorical technique. In particular, he ably deploys repetition and conversational juxtaposition, and I agree with other commentators that this work might adapt well to the stage. A worthy addition to middle eastern literature and historiography, which reflects the often unreal carnivalesque hall of mirrors that region can become to its inhabitants.
July 25, 2025
‘The idea of return is actually an attempt to escape the inhospitality of the present state of the world…there is no such thing as the right to return’
El-Youssef is open, unflinchingly honest and yet still portrays the reserve, shame and pedantry apt to the weight of his confessions. The repetition and circular narrative of the novella work so well in creating a journey that goes everywhere but leads nowhere. Although the context of his life as a Palestinian refugee is a necessity, his points transcend expulsion and migration, and have philosophical implications for life in general.
El-Youssef is open, unflinchingly honest and yet still portrays the reserve, shame and pedantry apt to the weight of his confessions. The repetition and circular narrative of the novella work so well in creating a journey that goes everywhere but leads nowhere. Although the context of his life as a Palestinian refugee is a necessity, his points transcend expulsion and migration, and have philosophical implications for life in general.
October 21, 2025
Interesting read for school that also felt a bit propagandistic
November 2, 2021
Tough content and challenging writing style. Themes were very tough yet it’s a story that everyone should take time to familiarize themselves with.
October 26, 2011
Compressed, evocative, and deeply intelligent, El-Youseff's novella concerns a younger Palestinian man living in London who casts his glance backward on a period of his life in Lebanon he cannot forget or transcend. An encounter with a friend at Heathrow airport, first accused of acting as a collaborator with the Israelis, provides an entry for recollecting the final evening that four friends spent in Lebanon before the Civil War of the 1980s envelops their lives.
Like his friends, all of whom harbor some secret or hidden handicap, the narrator has guarded a family secret for years--one that prevents him from "returning" to family in any significant fashion and one which makes the Palestinian desire to return to their native lands seem like an illusion and, in some senses, a distraction. After all, the presumptive meaning of Palestinians' return is a return to their homeland. But what if return to home has become unfeasible because of permanently concealed lies? The Palestinian resistance movement forms part of the reason for his family secret, as his sister, in order to escape a stifling life at home, became a female soldier within that movement. However, she remains so harassed and bullied by her older brother, who wants her to relinquish her role, that she commits suicide, an event that the family seals as secret by lying about what happened. The narrator keeps a vigil for the memory of his sister and, in the meantime, the friend who had been exiled for collaboration finds the means to return, inspired in part by conversations he has had with a Holocaust survivor. A brilliant and necessary work of Palestinian fiction.
Like his friends, all of whom harbor some secret or hidden handicap, the narrator has guarded a family secret for years--one that prevents him from "returning" to family in any significant fashion and one which makes the Palestinian desire to return to their native lands seem like an illusion and, in some senses, a distraction. After all, the presumptive meaning of Palestinians' return is a return to their homeland. But what if return to home has become unfeasible because of permanently concealed lies? The Palestinian resistance movement forms part of the reason for his family secret, as his sister, in order to escape a stifling life at home, became a female soldier within that movement. However, she remains so harassed and bullied by her older brother, who wants her to relinquish her role, that she commits suicide, an event that the family seals as secret by lying about what happened. The narrator keeps a vigil for the memory of his sister and, in the meantime, the friend who had been exiled for collaboration finds the means to return, inspired in part by conversations he has had with a Holocaust survivor. A brilliant and necessary work of Palestinian fiction.
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October 12, 2011Compressed, evocative, and deeply intelligent, El-Youseff's novella concerns a younger Palestinian man living in London who casts his glance backward on a period of his life in Lebanon he cannot forget or transcend. An encounter with a friend at Heathrow airport, first accused of acting as a collaborator with the Israelis, provides an entry for recollecting the final evening that four friends spent in Lebanon before the Civil War of the 1980s envelops their lives.
Like his friends, all of whom harbor some secret or hidden handicap, the narrator has guarded a family secret for years--one that prevents him from "returning" to family in any significant fashion and one which makes the Palestinian desire to return to their native lands seem like an illusion. The Palestinian resistance movement forms part of the reason for his family secret, as his sister, in order to escape a stifling life at home, became a female soldier within that movement. However, she remains so harassed and bullied by her older brother, who wants her to relinquish her role, that she commits suicide, an event that the family seals as a permanent secret by lying about what happened. The narrator keeps a vigil for the memory of his sister and, in the meantime, the friend who had been exiled for collaboration finds the means to return, inspired in part by conversations he has had with a Holocaust survivor. A brilliant and necessary work of Palestinian fiction.
Like his friends, all of whom harbor some secret or hidden handicap, the narrator has guarded a family secret for years--one that prevents him from "returning" to family in any significant fashion and one which makes the Palestinian desire to return to their native lands seem like an illusion. The Palestinian resistance movement forms part of the reason for his family secret, as his sister, in order to escape a stifling life at home, became a female soldier within that movement. However, she remains so harassed and bullied by her older brother, who wants her to relinquish her role, that she commits suicide, an event that the family seals as a permanent secret by lying about what happened. The narrator keeps a vigil for the memory of his sister and, in the meantime, the friend who had been exiled for collaboration finds the means to return, inspired in part by conversations he has had with a Holocaust survivor. A brilliant and necessary work of Palestinian fiction.
January 23, 2011
Intimate and touching, El-Youseff's book is about a Palestinian emigre in London looking back on an intense period of his life in Lebanon where he grew up. A brief Heathrow rendez-vous with an old friend, now 'exiled' as a 'collaborator' in the USA, is the book's fulcrum as the narrator recounts how the events transpired leading up to a final night of four friends together for a last time before the dramatic circumstances of 1980s Lebanon catch up with them all.
As the story unfolds it becomes clear that the narrator has kept a family secret from the world all these years. The situation of the Palestinian refugees is the backdrop to an expose of the hypocrisy encountered behind 'the movement'-led resistance. The illusion of return in the title is the realisation the author comes to that there is no chance of any return but a symbolic one. For him, when a people has nothing to dream of or aspire to it will resort to a collective living in the past, as if that memory will succour them indefinitely. Sensitively written, this book is an interesting and original approach to the subject.
As the story unfolds it becomes clear that the narrator has kept a family secret from the world all these years. The situation of the Palestinian refugees is the backdrop to an expose of the hypocrisy encountered behind 'the movement'-led resistance. The illusion of return in the title is the realisation the author comes to that there is no chance of any return but a symbolic one. For him, when a people has nothing to dream of or aspire to it will resort to a collective living in the past, as if that memory will succour them indefinitely. Sensitively written, this book is an interesting and original approach to the subject.
August 12, 2015
The Illusion of Return (2007) by Samir El-Youssef is the tale of returning back to lost roots he once escaped from with a friend fifteen years later. Politics aside, it’s something we often do, revisit something we thought we were far removed from, but, in fact, are closely related to it. It had its moments, but often times, there were parts that were regurgitated as if I had forgotten parts of the plots or certain details of the characters. That dulled the book out. Overall, a slim read on the tremors of Lebanon.
March 3, 2012
Fifteen years after leaving Lebanon, a Palestinian living in London hears from an old friend. The memory of their last meeting brings back stories that reflect the realities of a city and culture fractured by division and violence. Powerful, thoughtful, often wryly funny.
June 28, 2014
Striking and thought provoking. I admit that I do not know a whole lot about the Middle East but this book pricked my interest. Very introspective and offers perspective on the decisions people make during times of war and political unrest.
March 27, 2016
The rhetoric was a bit repetitive, but each new repetition brought new facts and ideas to the story. It was really well written so that only at the very last page you had all the information. I liked the writing style a lot and plan to read it again.
March 19, 2008
This novel is a little tour-de-force of a Palestinian remembering events in Lebanon many years before.
February 2, 2015
Takes, what must be a very unpopular, taboo notion, of the possibility of never returning to Palestine.
April 10, 2017
I found this to be a lovely and exceedingly mature (in the best sense of that word) book. Highly recommended.
April 24, 2012
This novella is elusive and haunting...I know it will linger with me for a long time.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews