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Mornings in Jenin

Susan Abulhawa (Goodreads Author)

4.39 · Rating details · 20,189 ratings · 3,300 reviews

A heart-wrenching, powerfully written novel that could do for Palestine what The Kite Runner did for Afghanistan.

Forcibly removed from the ancient village of Ein Hod by the newly formed state of Israel in 1948, the Abulhejas are moved into the Jenin refugee camp. There, exiled from his beloved olive groves, the family patriarch languishes of a broken heart, his eldest son ...more

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Paperback, 352 pages

Published February 15th 2010 by Bloomsbury USA (first published March 2006)

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Jan 24, 2014 Susan Abulhawa rated it it was amazing · (Review from the author)

i wrote it. so, my rating isn't all that relevant to readers. but for what it's worth, it came from a place of love, and I put pieces of my heart in this narrative.

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Jul 26, 2012 Nema Al-Araby rated it it was amazing

Recommended to Nema by: Noor Al-Zubaidi

I don't know..I'll try.
This was, most certainly, the most heartbreaking novel I have ever, so far, come to read. I literally left it aside and swam in a river of my own tears and hatred. I can't really write a review that will give this novel all of its credit. I just know that I hated myself, I hated being an Arab. And I hated that words will never, ever portray the true situation in Palestine, nor the death statistics will embrace the idea of death itself. I cried in nearly every single chapte I don't know..I'll try.
This was, most certainly, the most heartbreaking novel I have ever, so far, come to read. I literally left it aside and swam in a river of my own tears and hatred. I can't really write a review that will give this novel all of its credit. I just know that I hated myself, I hated being an Arab. And I hated that words will never, ever portray the true situation in Palestine, nor the death statistics will embrace the idea of death itself. I cried in nearly every single chapter of this novel. I've always wanted to read and read more about Palestine, and now that I started, I don't think I want to ever stop, just to be reminded, whenever I forget, that we're so selfish, superficial and empty-hearted.
Susan's vivid language helped me imagine every scene int he novel as if it is real. One of the things I really enjoyed in this novel. It was like living all of the people in it, generation after generation. I'd also like to mention that it reminded me of two novels: One of Khaled Husseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns in the sense of a never-ending loss and helplessness (although this one was much better in my opinion). And the other of Radwa Ashour's Trilogy, in the sense of passing every memory and experience from generation to generation.
I wholeheartedly admired how Susan used Darweesh's and Gibran's poems in the novel in such a poetic way that matched the topics. The songs of Fayrouz, oh how they so much reminded me of the Palestinian Intifada back then.
I will always long for a visit to Palestine. To Jerusalem. And I will always remember this novel. I will never be proud to be an Arab again, though.
If you ever intend to read this novel, be sure to be either in a good mood so that you won't get really depressed after reading, or be in a bad mood already that reading the novel will make you feel like your depression is nothing. You will love Hassan, Dalia, Amal, Yousef. You will love being in Palestine. You will love being in Beirut. You will hate al ghorba. You will hate the whole world. And centralize your feelings around Palestine. You will love Palestine, like you've never known it ever before. ...more

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Mar 03, 2009 Dianne rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I have had a hard time trying to review this book because it affected me on so many emotional levels. I almost feel like I am betraying the characters to say how much I enjoyed this book just because it was such an intense insight into a part of the world I knew so little about. Abulhawa enlightened and devestated me at the turn of every page... I learned about the beauty of Palestine, its people and their hardships, the wars, the savagery and the intense hatred we can impose on one another. I w ...more

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Feb 27, 2011 Dem rated it really liked it

Shelves: recommended

Re-reading this one for February 2016 sit in Book Club Originally read in 2011.

Isn't it wonderful when a book like Mornings in Jenin inspires readers to discuss, think about or research further for information in order to educate and better understand the conflicts of the world.

Mornings in Jenin is an amazing read and an insight to the lives of the Abulheja family who are an ordinary Palestinian family living just before, during and since the creation of the state of Israel.
For me I had known ...more

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Dec 13, 2011 Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship rated it it was ok

Shelves: historical-fiction, 2-stars, world-books-challenge, family-saga, op-ed-books, palestine, middle-east

A Palestinian perspective on the conflict in the Middle East? Yes, this book delivers that. A good novel? No, not that.

This book starts with the idyllic lives of Palestinian villagers in the early 1940s. It moves on to describe their displacement into a refugee camp, where the main character, Amal, is born. From there it (mostly) follows her life up until the early 2000s. Amal grows up in the camp, but a scholarship is her ticket out and from there her life takes some interesting turns until she A Palestinian perspective on the conflict in the Middle East? Yes, this book delivers that. A good novel? No, not that.

This book starts with the idyllic lives of Palestinian villagers in the early 1940s. It moves on to describe their displacement into a refugee camp, where the main character, Amal, is born. From there it (mostly) follows her life up until the early 2000s. Amal grows up in the camp, but a scholarship is her ticket out and from there her life takes some interesting turns until she finally winds up back in the camp again. (No spoilers; that's in the prologue.)

So here's the thing about this book. It feels very raw and angry; emotionally honest even where it's playing fast and loose with the facts. It's one of the most manipulative books I've ever read. It's almost impossible to lose sight, even for a moment, of the fact that the author is Making A Point. The writing, on the sentence level, is not bad. There are some good insights and connections drawn. But it's so heavy-handed in its message, so depressingly predictable in its tragedy, so insistent in telling the reader how to feel, that the agenda tends to overwhelm the novel.

I do think the author makes some effort to be fair. The individual Jewish characters in this book are mostly not bad people. But at the same time, the Palestinian characters are so full of strength, love and solidarity that there's barely a flaw to be found in any of them (and those few flaws they have are all directly attributable to abuses suffered at the hands of Israeli soldiers). And while the author doesn't exactly deny that some Palestinians have done some ugly things, she also doesn't mention these things until late in the book (even when, chronologically, they happened much earlier), after these people have suffered so much apparently unprovoked abuse that it's impossible to imagine them not fighting back. Even then, she glosses over the uglier stuff.

So the manipulation of the timeline, the idealization of the Palestinians and their pre-1948 lives, and the selectivity about where the book goes all make it difficult to trust Abulhawa, even though much of what she tells us is probably true. My impression is that she assumes her readers have already heard the Israeli side, and she's here to give us the Palestinian side. No doubt this is true of many readers, but I expect more from a novel than a slanted answer to slanted media reports. There are places where the book tries to rise above that, most notably one of the scenes with David toward the end of the book, but much more often it simply rants about Israel.

If that were the only problem with the book, I'd probably still give it 3 stars. But then there's the writing. The narration leaps, without any apparent rhyme or reason, between first- and third-person, between two different first-person narrators, between past and present tense. (Writing Yousef's POV in first person, present tense was a particularly ill-considered decision, resulting in passages like: "I reach my hand to touch. But he backs away. Later, not now, I am sure that it was not a dream." Got that?) And there's this constant fast-forwarding and rewinding to tell an entire subplot in a paragraph, as if the author's afraid we won't remember some plot element by the time it reappears. And then the narration jumps around and skips over tons of time. (It was cool that Amal and I share an alma mater. It would have been cooler if a single word had been said about her time there.)

In the end, I'm conflicted about this book. I did cry at the end (sucker for dramatic death scenes that I am). There are interesting plot elements; there's a good story in there somewhere. I did learn a bit. I do think there's a lot of truth to what's presented in this book, and that the author could have made her points, and more effectively, without being so heavy-handed. But this just isn't the novel that it could have been. ...more

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Jan 23, 2010 Christine rated it really liked it

Shelves: netgalley-and-arcs, poc-on-cover, poc-unclear-hero-or-heroine, minority-and-women-writers, literature-american

Disclosure: Won in Goodreads giveaway.

I suppose this is a type of book that will get some people's panties in a twist, so let me say a couple things.

1. Never, ever, listen to just one side of the story. There needs to be fiction told from the Palestinian point of view just as there needs to be fiction told from the Israeli point of view.

2. Who wants just to read books that don't challenge them?

3. It really isn't biased.

Okay, had to say that.

Mornings in Jenin is actually a surprising good novel Disclosure: Won in Goodreads giveaway.

I suppose this is a type of book that will get some people's panties in a twist, so let me say a couple things.

1. Never, ever, listen to just one side of the story. There needs to be fiction told from the Palestinian point of view just as there needs to be fiction told from the Israeli point of view.

2. Who wants just to read books that don't challenge them?

3. It really isn't biased.

Okay, had to say that.

Mornings in Jenin is actually a surprising good novel. It also is amazingly compelling. I don't say this because of the subject matter, but because of the style. I don't usually like it when writers tell and do not show. Abulhawa does this for large sections of the novel, and this is part of the reason why I gave the book four stars and not five. The style does not, however, fully get in the way of the story. I read the book in a day, and literally could not put it down for the last 150 pages. Abulhawa switches points of view, so it isn't always telling. Additionally, she could be drawing on a Palestinian (or Arab or Middle Eastern) tradition that I'm not familiar with. The other two, almost minor, flaws in the novel are that some of plot "twists" aren't really twists, and to be fair, Abulhawa doesn't seem to expect them to be. I also felt that the style in about 50 pages of the book felt more like a lecture (but I can understand why). The other flaw is that the love between the main character, Amal, and her husband does not seem as real or even as believable as the love Amal's brother has with his wife. Those passages are some of the most beautiful in the novel.

Those three "flaws" aside, the book is very, very good. What is most impressive is the even handed tone that Abulhawa takes. It's true, the Israelis are the villains here. But, Hello, it's written from a Palestinian viewpoint. What Abulhawa should get full credit for is the case for peace and understanding this book makes. The book ends, in part, with a marvelous and poignant image. Large sections of the book are about loss, not just the loss of life and place, but the loss of friendship and of family. Amal's father, for instance, had a friendship with a Jewish settler, and we see the effect of the conflict on this friendship. Abulhawa also makes nice use of the theme of Moses. Abulhawa doesn't usually judge for the reader; she lets the reader judge. She trusts her storytelling, and she respects the reader. She doesn’t worry about what the reader’s viewpoint prior to reading the novel might be. Instead, Abulhawa stays focuses on the story, and her themes, one of which is how violence begets violence; another is understanding.

I'm glad Bloomsbury published this book, and I'm sorry that I missed this book when it was published by a small press. ...more

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Aug 10, 2014 Lori rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I have to admit my ignorance in the continuing turmoil between Israel and Palestine. It seems that it is a conflict that has been going on forever and that many people in the States are at a lose to understand... so we watch the news call them all crazy then go about our live. This novel opened my eyes to this situation and made me sad, but most of all it made me angry. Angry that in a world of mass media and all the technological advances we possess that these atrocities are still going on in m ...more

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Apr 01, 2012 عبدُ الرَّحمن rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I'm speechless. For non-Palestinians, it's important to read this novel since it summarizes the story of Palestine - the story of great love and great loss-.
For Palestinians, it's good though painful to see our miseries put into words.

May I can write about some points of this outstanding novel ,later.

The lovely signature of my Palestinian sister Susan Abulhawa on my copy of Mornings in Jenin

[image error] IMG410-01

...more

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Jan 28, 2010 The Book Whisperer (aka Boof) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: arc-and-review-copies, middle-east, read-in-2010

What a wonderful yet hearbreaking ride this book was. Firstly, I’ll start with the fact that as soon as I saw the cover and title of this book I knew I had to read it. In 1993-94, I answered an add in the paper to go and work as an Au Pair for a family in Israel. I can’t explain why Israel, there were hunderds of adds for France, Italy, USA etc and one solitary add for Israel. As a child at school we were asked to pick a country to do a project on and I picked Israel. I’m not Jewish, nor am I Mu ...more

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Apr 02, 2007 Sonia rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: EVERYONE

Here's what I wrote about this book (written by a friend of mine) on the B&N website:

Everyone should read Susan Abulhawa’s The Scar of David. This story of a Palestinian family’s journey through four generations of Israeli occupation offers beautiful, balanced, and intensely humanistic insight into the experience of both Palestinians and Israelis. Abulhawa artfully demonstrates how both occupier and occupied fall victim to this conflict, yet she paints a clear picture of the magnitude of its eff Here's what I wrote about this book (written by a friend of mine) on the B&N website:

Everyone should read Susan Abulhawa’s The Scar of David. This story of a Palestinian family’s journey through four generations of Israeli occupation offers beautiful, balanced, and intensely humanistic insight into the experience of both Palestinians and Israelis. Abulhawa artfully demonstrates how both occupier and occupied fall victim to this conflict, yet she paints a clear picture of the magnitude of its effect on Palestinians – that over and over again Palestinians find themselves at the butt end of an Israeli or American rifle, in the groping hands of soldiers at checkpoints, and as the targets of missile massacres, always looking over their backs at a homeland razed by bulldozers and overrun by soldiers and settlers. However, what is most impressive is that she attains this degree of complexity around the Palestinian experience without dehumanizing Israelis or minimizing their fears and suffering. Rather, by telling the story as a series of first person narratives punctuated with third person accounts, Abulhawa is able to connect the personal with the political and give readers the sense that we are all ensnared in the same terrible situation, though its impact is certainly felt differently on each side. Anyone who seeks to understand how this conflict affects the real people who live it every day must read this book, as Abulhawa leaves us with the hope of change and a strong sense of the vastness of what it means to live under and within occupation. But it is not merely the structure and the story of the book that makes it such a good read. Abulhawa’s masterful narrative voice, splendid poetic prose, and dialogue that dances alive in a reader’s head glued the book to my hands, and I was unable to put it down, often overcome with strong emotional reactions to the characters’ experiences. I finished this book in just 24 hours – it is rare to encounter such a compelling read!
...more

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Apr 30, 2010 Jeanette (Again) rated it really liked it

Shelves: four-star-fiction, all-fiction, middle-east

My takeaway message from this book is that women should be running the world.

The story follows four generations of the Palestinian Abulheja family and their friends. It begins in the 1940's when they are first driven from their ancestral lands in Ein Hod, continues through the war of 1967 and the Lebanon War of 1982, and concludes with the Israeli bulldozing and massacre at the Jenin refugee camp in April 2002. Theirs is a life of perpetual loss, perpetual grieving, and constant uncertainty.

The ...more

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Dec 25, 2014 Muhammad Ahmed Siddiqui rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: war, favorites, must-be-owned, religious, historical, political

A competitor of THE KITE RUNNER and A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS, and edges ahead of them at the end and it is strictly UNBIASED

I am speechless but I will try my best to tell you what this book did to me.

How many books you have read that made you love, hate, cry, angry, remorse, guilty, shiver, tremble and all the senses that a human being can experience ?

This book will make you feel human.

How many books you read that had great characters, wonderful storytelling, expertly constructed structure, ne ...more

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Nov 13, 2010 Niledaughter rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Niledaughter by: Aamir

Shelves: arabs-fiction, palestine-cause

This book is simply about what does it mean to be a Palestinian …I tried to a write a review but I could not collect the right thoughts , so here are the quotes that represent what I got from the book :

" The future can't breathe in refugee camp, The air here is too dense for hope"

"Growing up in a landscape of improvised dreams and abstract national longings, everything felt temporary to me . Nothing could be counted on to endure , neither parents nor siblings nor home. Not even one's body, vuln This book is simply about what does it mean to be a Palestinian …I tried to a write a review but I could not collect the right thoughts , so here are the quotes that represent what I got from the book :

" The future can't breathe in refugee camp, The air here is too dense for hope"

"Growing up in a landscape of improvised dreams and abstract national longings, everything felt temporary to me . Nothing could be counted on to endure , neither parents nor siblings nor home. Not even one's body, vulnerable as it was to bullets."

"The roots of our grieve coil so deeply into loss that death has come to live with us like a family member who makes you happy by avoiding you , but who is still one of the family . our anger is a rage that westerners cannot understand . our sadness can make the stone weep . and the way we love is no exception "

"On March 20 , a suicide bomber had killed seven Israelis in the Galilee , which was in relation for Israel's killing of thirty one Palestinians on March 12 , which was in relation for the killing of eleven Israelis on March 11 , which was on relation for Israel's killing of forty Palestinians on March 8 , and on and on "

Here is the finally summary wrote by Amal (one of the main protagonists)

" the story of one family in an obscure village , visited one day by a history that was not its own , and forever trapped by longing between roots and soil .It was a tale of war , its chilling , burning and chilling again fire .Of furious love and a suicide bomber . of a girl who escaped her destiny to become a word , drained of its meaning . Of grown children sifting through the madness to find their relevance. Of a truth that pushed its way through lies , emerging of a crack , a scar , in a man's face . "

N.B
* I have to point out to anyone who thinks of the book as *biased*, even though there is no beautiful portrait of Israel as a state or a military , Jewish people in the book were not demons, nor in flat presentation or black and white figures , they were just people and there were parts in the book that there was so deep human interactions between the both sides . and after all this book is the Palestinian POV.

* For the book style , as an Arab reader I find some parts turned to be American *some how* for me (like using the ocean expression) ,also some parts dropped out of my hands ...not enjoyable to follow at the beginning , this improved by moving on , so it did not affect the novel as a whole to read ,and this where the 5th star go . ...more

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Jan 23, 2018 Colleen Fauchelle rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018-books

I appreciated this story. It opened my eyes to the other side of the story, the Muslim side of Israel. I liked the writing style some of the sentences were beautiful. And I am forever greatful to be born in NZ- we have our troubles but we are safe. This reads like non fiction but is fiction set around actual dates. It is heart breaking and terifying and tears will roll down your cheeks at certain spots. It's a story of children burying a baby, of a community round up and taken from their land, o ...more

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Mar 23, 2010 Richard rated it did not like it

I wanted to read Mornings in Jenin because I was looking for an artful corrective to the American media slant of Israeli/good, Palestinian/terrorist. Unfortunately, Mornings in Jenin is neither artful nor corrective; what it is is propaganda from the pro-Palestinian side in which, and for the most part Palestinian = good, Israeli = terrorist. That's half the problem, the other half is that it's not a very well written book, suffering from unmotivated shifts in point of view, considerable telling I wanted to read Mornings in Jenin because I was looking for an artful corrective to the American media slant of Israeli/good, Palestinian/terrorist. Unfortunately, Mornings in Jenin is neither artful nor corrective; what it is is propaganda from the pro-Palestinian side in which, and for the most part Palestinian = good, Israeli = terrorist. That's half the problem, the other half is that it's not a very well written book, suffering from unmotivated shifts in point of view, considerable telling rather than showing, artistic corner-cutting by lifting whole passages from books and other documents while squeezing the story to match the reportage, a wildly leaping time frame, and purple prose. The author also seems to be unsure of just what story she wants to tell: coming of age, separation of twins, horrors of occupation, plight of women, and so gives us a smattering of all the above. In short, it's as much a mess as the middle-east itself. And like the middle-east it may not be an unmitigated disaster, but to paraphrase Cormac McCartthy, "it'll do until one shows up."

So, what mitigates the disaster? It's a first novel, and Susan Abulhawa shows signs of being able to tell a story. The book succeeds in giving a face, voice, and humanity to Palestinians who are only seen, on this side of the water, as evil. It also lifts the veil on the horrors perpetrated by the Israeli government and military. There is a small amount of sympathy shown the Israeli side, but if Ms. Abulhawa had managed to give us a truly balanced look - showing both sides as mixed bags of humanity under unimaginable stress, then we'd have a book worth reading.

I've given Mornings in Jenin one star. It's not a very good book, but more than that, I'm truly saddened by it - saddened because the Palestinian people live in an oppressive siege, because the Israelis can't seem to do any better than they have, because humanity is being wasted on both sides, and because Ms Abulhawa hasn't given us a better book - though I think a better book is in her.
...more

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Dec 25, 2009 new_user rated it really liked it

Shelves: first-reads

Mornings in Jenin is difficult to review because the normal tags do not apply. Mornings is near enough to non-fiction as makes no difference. Susan Abulhawa imagines the characters, but their feelings, motivations and the events of the novel draw from reality and weighs Mornings with significance. The brutalities in the novel are such that again and again one wonders, much as in war literature, "How can people do this to each other?" Heartrending doesn't begin to describe it. It physically hurts Mornings in Jenin is difficult to review because the normal tags do not apply. Mornings is near enough to non-fiction as makes no difference. Susan Abulhawa imagines the characters, but their feelings, motivations and the events of the novel draw from reality and weighs Mornings with significance. The brutalities in the novel are such that again and again one wonders, much as in war literature, "How can people do this to each other?" Heartrending doesn't begin to describe it. It physically hurts to know these things are true.

Mornings brings history and culture to these happenings that the news media cannot. Abulhawa deftly guides the reader from the 40s to modern day Jenin without slowing the narrative through the use of non-linear narration, foreshadowing, etc. Readers hardly realize they're reading an intergenerational saga because we are aware of Amal, on whom the entire story hinges, almost from the beginning. Because of the author's clues, she is present in the narrative and developing in our minds even before she is born.

Abulhawa also has a delight with words that is clear in her prose, where her imagery and unique metaphors are always fresh. She also has a ways of capturing powerful moments and scenes, imbuing each with emotion and meaning so one doesn't read in a vacuum. I can certainly see the comparison to Kite Runner, and I was impressed that the ending managed to carry some kind of resolution for the characters without solving the world's problems in thirty seconds.

I wish there was a little less bias against Islam, but that was fortunately minimal. I also really liked the glossary of Arabic vocabulary at the back of the book. The narrative is peppered with Arabic words whose English translations would just seem jarring in their place and would not capture the same emotion, so I thought the glossary was a good idea.

I recommend this book to anyone, really, since most readers have only a passing familiarity with the region or the conflict, in which the US is engaged. This is a pretty good introduction. ...more

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Sep 07, 2010 Sheri rated it it was amazing

Mornings in Jenin (Susan Abulhawa)
This book is the story of Amal Abulheja and her family spanning 54 years. It starts in 1948 when the family is removed from their home in Ein Hod and forced to live as refugees in Jenin. It is a tragic tale of war and loss, yet is also a story of family bonding, love and dedication.

Amal goes through war and conflict between Palestine (Muslims) and Israel (Jewish). She is a strong proud woman, with tragedy following her. The vivid detail of war and terror is hear ...more

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Mar 26, 2015 Zanna rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: me-na-w, me-na-lit, bechdel-pass, grt

3.5 stars

I found this a heart-rending book; it upset me over and over because it reflects real histories. In general, I appreciate fictionalisations like this, because I understand and remember through emotional connections with characters. Susan Abulhawa successfully transforms real events in the genocidal invasion and occupation of Palestine into the story of one family’s experience here. I was already familiar with this history and was not surprised by any of the events, althought I was still 3.5 stars

I found this a heart-rending book; it upset me over and over because it reflects real histories. In general, I appreciate fictionalisations like this, because I understand and remember through emotional connections with characters. Susan Abulhawa successfully transforms real events in the genocidal invasion and occupation of Palestine into the story of one family’s experience here. I was already familiar with this history and was not surprised by any of the events, althought I was still upset and shocked.

I had some issues with the descriptions of Dalia, the mother of the most central character, Amal. Dalia is a Bedouin woman and attention is drawn to the sedentary community’s prejudice towards her, (which somewhat mirrors the sedentarist racism against GRT people in the UK), which is good, but I am not sure I feel OK about the use of the word ‘Gypsy’ and descriptions of Dalia’s ‘wild and colourful’ personality, behaviour and clothing; Abulhawa’s reply to the community’s negative image of Dalia is exotification. She is taciturn and rather unassertive even before the Nakba and the devastating loss of her baby so we don't have much of her voice against others' views of her

I felt uncomfortable that traumatised people are repeatedly described as ‘dead inside’; this discomfort reflects my privileged existence and insulation from many forms of trauma. One of the things I find really insightful and useful about the book is that some of the Jewish/Israeli characters who have had comparatively comfortable and privileged lives are able to be compassionate, generous, empathetic and so on, because trauma can make people less able to draw on such resources. Going further, the ways that some traumatised people (Palestinians) are able to continue being loving, communitarian, life-affirming is an even more great thing about the book.

What I really didn’t like was the style of narration. I like the way experiences are described in interior narration, often in high sensory detail, down to the crunchy sound of dirt underfoot on a hard floor, but I dislike the author voice that comes between segments of interior narration. The fact is that I cannot process, for example Amal and her brother’s devastating losses intellectually – I can EITHER hear what such things are like to the victims in their own words, OR how an outside observer sees the effects of such experiences. The omniscient author voice narration that invasively pulls in and out of different characters’ consciousness in order to get the best view, like a piece of sophisticated sporting event coverage, made me progressively more motion-sick. I feel I should not have access to this commentary – if I really value Amal’s humanity, her testimony should be enough for me.

Perhaps the intent behind this was for the text to embody violation. Radwa Ashour’s The Woman from Tantoura embodies fragmentation and dislocation, and is arguably no less visceral than this, but I feel it more ethical, because Abulhawa enacts violence on her characters who are already crushed under violences of the state of Israel and/or feelings of guilt, and also more truthful because I think it’s an illusion for me to think I can understand how Amal really feels.

At times I felt THESE ARE NOT REAL CHARACTERS. There is a constellation of lives here, but most of them have only quirks (Huda’s habit of stating the obvious) rather than personalities. Mahjid, Amal’s husband, and, less so, Hasan, her father, are the only people apart from Amal who really came to life for me. Dalia’s characterisation does not transcend racialisation and an image of mental illness, despite Amal’s tenderness to her memory. Depictions of romantic love between Amal & Mahjid and Yousef & Fatima are intense, heartfelt and affecting, but highly conventional. There are no surprises in these relationships (apart from Hasan’s unorthodox marriage to the ‘bad Bedouin girl’). They are passionate and I believed in them, and that is enough to make the story work emotionally which unquestionably it does, but not to elevate it to the level of great literature like The Woman from Tantoura.

An intergenerational structure is required to capture the biography of the invasion and onslaught against Palestine & Palestinians. The lives of Yehya and Basima’s family are the pegs on which this story is hung. Thus, Abulhawa describes pivotal moments intensely and leaves long stretches blank. This blankness makes space for an effective description of the deadened and dislocated feeling of exile that Amal experiences in the USA. Although she makes some connections there, the sense of being cut off from the land she belongs to is debilitating, and the longing to return regardless of the high risks and terrible conditions is tangible.

The long timeline also gives resonance to the beauty of certain moments and memories that take on ever deeper significance. A few months after being dispossessed from his land, Yehya sneaks back and returns with ‘a radiant spirit’ and pocketfuls of olives and other fruits of the harvest he has tended all his life. This stolen moment of jubilation blazes down the generations, a sign shining like tender winter sunshine for the right of return… ...more

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Sep 17, 2010 Dan Schwent rated it liked it

Shelves: freebies-for-reviewing, 2010

In the West, when we hear of the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians, we rarely get the Palestinian side of the story. This book is that story.

Mornings in Jenin is the story of a Palestinian girl, Amal, and her family, living through six decades of Palestinian-Israeli conflict. As such, it is brutal at times. There are scenes of torture, brutality, and killing. War is brutal business and Abulhawa doesn't let you forget it. People are senselessly killed left and right.

Amal's story ...more

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Sep 18, 2010 Ghi rated it it was amazing

Shelves: political

Amazing, honest, heart breaking and takes you on a hell of a ride on an emotional roller coaster. It made me weep every few pages, laugh out loud on others. It took me to Palestine and I could see myself under the olive trees and the orange trees. I could almost touch the people living in Jenin and in the refugee camps. I wept for them, laughed with them, celebrated good times and mourned the bad with them. A truly great read, although the book is a heavy one. It is almost as heavy as ten thousa ...more

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Apr 02, 2019 Ahmed R. Rashwan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

It is heart-wrenching, emotional and torturous. How can my soul possibly be the same after reading this. A near perfect novel, flawed only be very subtle faults, it comes close to a perfect painting of Palestine. I assure you that you will lose yourself; it is a book that will confuse you. Amidst all the pain, gut-wrenching emotions and utter shock you will forget that this is a story of fiction and will almost believe it is most definitely an autobiography. The events are all too real; the scen It is heart-wrenching, emotional and torturous. How can my soul possibly be the same after reading this. A near perfect novel, flawed only be very subtle faults, it comes close to a perfect painting of Palestine. I assure you that you will lose yourself; it is a book that will confuse you. Amidst all the pain, gut-wrenching emotions and utter shock you will forget that this is a story of fiction and will almost believe it is most definitely an autobiography. The events are all too real; the scenery, the cities and devastation, all remnants of a not so distant past; a modern history written in blood. This is unmistakably accurate; that at least is not a matter of debate.

As a reader who was very genuinely moved by this and who was brought to heavy tears several times throughout the book, tears that almost transformed into sobs if not for my iron grip on my emotions, I can only imagine how Susan felt writing it, as she was much more closer to the story. It didn't even matter that I was in public. The beauty of such a story is that there is no need of raw talent, not that Susan Abulhawa lacks this in any way, to deliver such powerful story-telling, but it rather attains such power and strength from within its own self. No one can deny that these specific 300 pages are heavier in weight than any other 300 pages of any other book. That alone has catapulted this novel into the limelight; into the hearts of millions who feel deeply for this novel, even before ever reading it or opening its pages.

How can we not feel shame, regret, guilt and remorse at the stories within this novel. How, when we have been intricately intertwined with the Palestinians, their land, their story and their cause ever since before childbirth. For years upon years, generations and generations, we have been connected intimately through religion, culture and tongue. In all sense of the word, we are one. But the heavy tears I cried were not weighed down by sadness and sorrow, but rather by utter helplessness and complete defeat. No matter where your allegiance now lies, what beliefs you have, and how you feel towards Arabs and Islam in general, this novel will put pressure on you, you will feel your heart compress under its unavoidable weight.

I have thought long and hard about whether or not to disclose the flaws I felt the novel contained that left a small but noticeable scar on its masterpiece of a painting. I fear that in stating what I found was lacking in the novel that I would mistakenly give an incorrect idea about how I felt about this novel, and the deep emptiness it left inside of me upon its completion. But to keep in line with my harsh critique spirit and my straight-forwarded honesty, I feel it is my duty to mention the small kinks in the armor which this novel clearly is to the cause.

Susan Abulhawa, although providing us here with a grandiose of a novel, an intimate, honest and passionate look at the Palestinian side of the notorious conflict tainted, I feel, the story by her repetitiveness and insistence on using specific phrases continuously throughout the novel; there are only so many times you can read a sentence or a phrase before it loses its meaning or impact. The switching back and forth between different narrators and actual narrative styles (first person, third person) was slightly confusing at times and left me wondering why Abulhawa couldn't simply just stick to one type.

On another note, Susan's Abulhawa's insistence on referring to the Palestinians as Arabs, and sort of insinuating throughout the novel that Arab and Muslim were synonymous was completely out of place here. The narrative would have been much more impactful if it was more geographically (and historically) accurate. Here is where Susan's Palestinian bias shines the brightest. I am by no means on Israel's side in this conflict, but it is clear that to Susan, Jews and Israelis are also as synonymous as Arabs and Muslims; an incorrect assumption in both matters. Canaanites and Judaism on the other hand, can definitely be considered synonymous, as Canaanites held Judaism as a religion in the geographical area of Palestine far more than Islam had been. Palestinians only identified as Arabs after the Arab conquest, which in itself was an usurpation of a people and their culture. A biased mind would clearly ascertain that the Jews had as much of a right to the land as Muslims believe they do, and Canaanite culture had as much of a right to the land as anyone who identifies as Arab believe they do, but CLEARLY not condoning the method in which Israelis went about affirming that.

But as has been mentioned, these faults can barely be considered so and were only noticeable to my very scrutinizing eyes. There should be no doubt in anyone's mind that this is a must read novel. If one were to pick up one novel, summarizing the Palestinian conflict from the Palestinian point of view, this would definitely be the most moving, accurate and representative novel to date. Although this book was originally written in English, I can only imagine the magnificent impact it would create in one's heart and soul if read in the story and its character's native language. If you are accepting of a punch in the gut, a squeeze of your heart and a grip of your soul; this is definitely a book that should be on anyone's to read list. ...more

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Jan 02, 2020 Amber rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

" Where should the birds fly
After the last sky.....

I can explain this, but it would break the glass cover on your heart,
And there's no fixing that"

"
Israeli occupation exposes us very young to the extremes of our emotions, until we cannot feel except in the extreme.

Toughness found fertile soil in the hearts of Palestinians, and the grains of resistance embedded themselves in their skin. Endurance evolved as a hallmark of refugee society. But the price they paid was the subduing of tender vulner ...more

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Mar 20, 2019 Isa rated it it was amazing

I find it hard to put into words how deeply moved I am by this book...it is a sad but yet hope conveying story......
And the way it it is written, to me....it was like reading poetry.....every single word makes you " feel", it makes you live the story......

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Aug 17, 2018 Reem Ghabbany rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This read was a heartbreaking tragedy of Palestinians
Palestine the occupied state and the misery of its people
as an Arab, I grew up with stories about Palestine and its long-suffering people but even I haven't imagined it to be this horrifying. as the Author note says: The characters in this book are fictitious but Palestine and the events that happened in the book are real.
The story follows Amal, a Palestinian girl, born in a refugee camp. she struggles in her life as a Palestinian living und ...more

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Jan 09, 2014 Noeleen rated it it was amazing

I really never knew anything about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to call it just a conflict is insufficient and wrong. This book really educated me on these horrific events and time period. I do remember as a young child in the seventies and again as a teenager in the eighties hearing and seeing snippets of news reports about it on radio and television, but as a young child and teenager I wasn't interested nor did I understand. This place was far away from Ireland, it was somewhere over t ...more

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Jan 27, 2009 Rosanna rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is a must read. Being American (where all we hear are stories from an Israeli view), this book brought a wonderful and sad Palestinian perspective on the plight and struggles of their people during the years of the Israel/Palestine conflict, which sadly still exists today. You really feel for Amal and for her family and friends throughout the whole book. I won't spoil the story, but it touched my heart and left me with a craving to study more about the conflict.

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Aug 02, 2011 Tanja Berg rated it really liked it

I give a book full marks only on a rare occasion. Most stories don't deserve it. As literature "Mornings in Jenin" is not of the highest order. The languale is too sumptuos and floral for the tale, a simpler prose would have been more effective. A simpler language would have rammed the story harder into the heart of the reader. In the beginning, the lavish descriptions of feelings actually cushion against the hard truths. This book receives full marks for bringing attention to Palestinian refuge ...more

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Jul 01, 2015 Ahmad Mustafa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: english-novels, read-on-kindle-statistical-shelf, palestine

I don't know how to write a review for a book that induced and provoked a jar of emotions more than thoughts !!

I feel like I lived The 50+ years time span of this novel in a couple of days ,,with its sadnesses and the few moments of happiness and joy that found their way stealthily to its pages .

The author really knows how to tell a story and professionally makes you involved personally with the scenes ,characters and emotions.

The amount of unjust ,oppression and turmoil in this novel is too muc ...more

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Feb 04, 2012 Rana Baker rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

What I truly loved about this book was that it combines both a genuine historical account and a breathtaking personal narrative. I've read many books on Palestine although, and I admit, only few of them have to do with as much of literature as Mornings in Jenin. I must say, however, that this is the most beautifully woven account I've ever read. The small and simple details Abulhawa attaches to each of her characters are enough to draw you into the story from the beginning to the end. When I ask ...more

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Jul 13, 2012 Yomna rated it it was amazing

Some books when you read, you're never the same person again. That's one of them.

It's very well written and full of plot twists.

I used to feel bad when I hear about people getting killed in Palestine. However, after reading this beautiful novel, knowing that any bombing in Palestine can kill people like Hasan, Majid, and Amal, I now see it from a completely different perspective.

I felt very angry and depressed after finishing this book. The Arab world .. no the WHOLE WORLD is either in غفلة or ...more

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About Susan Abulhawa

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Also Susan Abulhawa
(Arabic: سوزان أبو الهوى)

susan abulhawa was born to refugees of the 1967 war when Israel captured what remained of Palestine, including Jerusalem. She currently lives in Pennsylvania with her daughter. She is the founder and President of Playgrounds for Palestine, a children’s organization dedicated to upholding The Right to Play for Palestinian children. Her debut novel, Mornin ...more

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