Minor Detail : Shibli, Adania, Jaquette, Elisabeth

Minor Detail : Shibli, Adania, Jaquette, Elisabeth

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Adania ShibliAdania Shibli

Minor Detail Paperback – May 26, 2020
English Edition by Adania Shibli (Author), Elisabeth Jaquette (Translator)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars (2,508)





Minor DetailNakbaMany years later, in the near-present day, a young woman in Ramallah tries to uncover some of the details surrounding this particular rape and murder, and becomes fascinated to the point of obsession, not only because of the nature of the crime, but because it was committed exactly twenty-five years to the day before she was born. Adania Shibli masterfully overlays these two translucent narratives of exactly the same length to evoke a present forever haunted by the past.

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105 pages

Review

A mind-changing revelation of how the past and the present converge on Palestinian life, achieved through craft, character voice, and time travel expertly realized by the author.--Porochista Khakpour "Bookforum"

The power in the syntax and diction--the pulsing lyricism in its raw realities--reminds me of how central poetry is to the prose of Palestinian storytellers.--Sarah Schulman "Bookforum"

[A] harrowing account of a crime that takes place in the aftermath of Israel's 1948 war known as the Nakba (catastrophe or disaster) to Palestinians...Anyone interested in better understanding life in the Occupied Territories needs to read this powerful tale.--John Fulton "Lit Hub" (8/9/2023 12:00:00 AM)

This short book got under my skin when I first read it and has haunted me ever since. The austere prose in this magnificent translation throws a pitiless, impassive air over every page, where murder is dealt with as impersonally as a pack of chewing gum.--Leri Price "Words Without Borders"

"Like an affidavit in its egalitarian specificity--every detail of every character's action is accounted for, and therefore scrutinized. A starkly poetic accounting of a crime, its burial, and its exhumation."--Alia Persico-Shammas "Community Bookstore"

A quiet, searching, precise observer--Adania Shibli deserves to be better known.-- "Qantara.de"

Minor Detail can be read as the blackest of black comedies, in orbit about tragedy as rings around a dark planet. The abject is the centre of gravity here, and we may only approach so close before words themselves are crushed.-- "The Sydney Morning Herald"

A blistering allegory about state violence and the conscription of women's bodies. In its minor details, Shibli's novel offers a piercing account of everyday life for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. The translation by Elisabeth Jaquette is superb. Minor Detail is a credo for revolution, a major book: tense, propulsive and timely.--Emily Stewart "The Saturday Paper"

A palpable sense of dread pulses beneath Minor Detail. In Elisabeth Jaquette's fine translation from Arabic, Shibli asks how we can account for and understand major crimes, by looking more closely for the details that escape.-- "Prospect Magazine"

A short but powerful novel. Shibli interrogates a world of unstable and shifting boundaries and borders, from the Negev Desert a year after the 1948 war to a contemporary version of the tightly controlled lands of Palestine and Israel. Dreamlike, haunting prose.-- "World Literature Today"

Adania Shibli's exceptional novel Minor Detail belongs to the genre of the novel as resistance, as revolutionary text. Simultaneously depicting the dehumanisation that surrounds rape and land-grab, it is a text that palpitates with fear and with outrage. As we join the nameless young woman in her quest to find the truth of a long-forgotten atrocity, we realize how dangerous it is to reclaim life and history in the face of ongoing, systematic erasure. The narrative tempo, that eventually reaches a crescendo, astutely captures how alienation and heightened anxiety are elemental states of living under Israeli occupation. This is the political novel we have all been waiting for.--Meena Kandasamy

An explosive double-telling of a single crime story.... The extreme economies of Shibli's style--blending aphorism and enigma, dry humor and searing critique--recall the novellas of César Aira and Mario Bellatin. In the act of writing such an evocative, tightly wrought fiction, in her invention of such a complex, fighting character who is at once the victim's double and the author's stand-in, Shibli not only reflects the deadening conditions of occupation. She also, crucially, transcends the damage they have done.-- "4Columns"

An extraordinary work of art, Minor Detail is continuously surprising and absorbing: a very rare blend of moral intelligence, political passion, and formal virtuosity.--Pankaj Mishra

An intense and penetrating work about the profound impact of living with violence--Shibli's work is powerful and this translation by Elisabeth Jaquette is rendered with exquisite clarity and quiet control.--Katie da Cunha Lewin "Los Angeles Review of Books" (6/21/2020 12:00:00 AM)

Exquisitely powerful: though focused on the finest details--flakes of rust against skin, the softness of grass--Shibli takes readers to the center of a family and a culture, using the same careful, dispassionate observation to report everyday events like the father's shaving as she does to depict the death of a sibling in area violence. Like a great volume of poetry, Shibli's prose has rhythm and unexpected momentum, and cries for rereading.-- "Publishers Weekly"

In Adania Shibli's subversively quiet, compelling Minor Detail, threads of connection are embodied in a young woman's quest to find almost erased history. Written in spare, careful language (praise also to translator Elisabeth Jaquette), Shibli helps reclaim what would be obliterated by forces actively at work yet today, doing so with a narrative masterfully carrying both surprise and inevitability within. This book has devastation and loss to a shattering, wrenching degree, and yet. Yes, and yet.--Rick Simonson "Elliott Bay Book Company"

Palestinian Adania Shibli's cinematic novel stages a return of the repressed on a national scale by reposing an atrocity committed by Israeli soldiers in the Negev region in 1949. An unflinching account of violence and dehumanisation--Shibli breaks new ground. She uses a lyrical, intensely sensory mode to describe how we identify with figures from the past, and especially the restless dead. Brutal, hypnotic and haunting.--Mireille Juchau "The Monthly"

Shibli crafts a story that connects strangers to one another through the occupation that has shaped their lives. Nerve-racking and eye-opening.-- "Arab News"

Shibli has created a powerful set of dual heroines, women wracked with disquiet and violence, resisting the frames that have first, been chosen for them, then denied to have ever existed. This is an astonishing, major book.--John Freeman "Lithub"

Startling, cinematic: Shibli's masterly, acidic work of subtle symbolism and plot symmetry gives no access to the thoughts of the Israeli soldiers or their victim, making the Palestinian woman's subsequent first-person narration all the more arresting. This is a remarkable exercise in dramatizing a desire for justice.-- "Publishers Weekly"

The dead are ever present in Adania Shibli's novel Minor Detail. Indirectly through multiple narrators, Shibli constructs a meditation on brutality, war, memory and the collective suffering of the Palestinian people in this chilling novel in which the legacy of violence remains unresolved.--Lauren LeBlanc "The Observer"

The terror Shibli evokes intensifies slowly, smouldering, until it is shining off the page...The book is, at every turn, dangerously and devastatingly good.-- "The Guardian"

Though Minor Detail initially promises to be a kind of counterhistory or whodunit--a rescue of the victim's story from military courts and Israeli newspapers--it turns out to be something stranger and bleaker. Rather than a discovery of hidden truths, or a search for justice, it is a meditation on the repetitions of history, the past as a recurring trauma....For Shibli, the emblematic experience of occupation is the longue durée of ennui and isolation rather than the dramatic moment of crisis.--Robyn Creswell "New York Review of Books"

What links these two stories? Borders, of course, but also some weird echoes. The woman from Ramallah sneaks into Israel to find out more, for there may be 'nothing more important than this little detail, if one wants to arrive at the complete truth.' Shibli delicately suggests that the 'complete truth' of the crime [in Minor Detail] might never be found out, that perhaps the details in the two stories mirror each other because the past isn't even past.--Yu Miri "The New York Times Book Review" (6/23/2020 12:00:00 AM)

Adania Shibli takes a gamble in entrusting our access to the key event in her novel - the rape and murder of a young Bedouin woman - to two profoundly self-absorbed narrators - an Israeli psychopath and a Palestinian amateur sleuth high on the autism scale - but her method of indirection justifies itself fully as the book reaches its heart-stopping conclusion.--J. M. Coetzee

The most talked-about writer on the West Bank.--Ahdaf Soueif

About the Author

Adania Shibli (1974, Palestine) has been writing novels, plays, short stories and narrative essays, which were published in various anthologies, art books, and literary and cultural magazines in different languages. Her latest novel Minor Detail was published in the US by New Directions in 2020, in a translation by Elisabeth Jacquette, and has been translated into many languages, most recently into German (published by Berenberg Verlag). Minor Detail was a finalist for the National Book Award and longlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize.

Elisabeth Jaquette is a translator from the Arabic and Executive Director of the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA).

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From the Author

Reviews

Minor Detail

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Product Details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ New Directions
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 26, 2020

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From Australia

Peter J. Dann

5.0 out of 5 stars Delivers a tremendous punch by apparently simple means

Reviewed in Australia on 27 July 2021

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This seemingly unpretentious, brief miniature takes us deep into the deadly damage the founding of modern Israel has done to the psyches of those who live there without ever sounding in the least didactic, delivering a tremendous punch by apparently simple means.

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From other countries

Mahé

5.0 out of 5 stars Free Palestine

Reviewed in France on 1 March 2024

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Un livre qu'il faut absolument lire, surtout avec ce qui« Ce n’est pas le canon qui vaincra, c’est l’homme. »

TW : viol collectif, meurtre, génocide, violence policière

Ce court roman est scindé en deux : un premier texte écrit à la troisième personne et la seconde partie écrit à la première personne. Dans la première partie, on suit un officier israélien anonyme, plutôt maniaque. Ce qui a été nommé comme "incident" se passe en août 1949 sous sa garde et sa demande : le viol collectif d'une jeune bédouine qui sera ensuite tuée. Dans la seconde partie, on suit une jeune palestinienne de nos jours qui est obsédée par un détail "mineur" de cet incident : le fait qu'il se soit déroulé pile vingt-cinq ans avant son anniversaire.

Si les deux parties sont clairement différentes, elles restent indissociables pour comprendre l'histoire. Il faut aussi savoir que cet "incident" dont s'est emparé Adania Shibli pour écrire cette histoire est inspirée d'un véritable crime commis par l'armée israélienne. C'est justement ce moment ainsi que les quelques jours avant que l'on suit dans la première partie, du point de vue de l'instigateur. Le point de vue à la troisième personne nous pousse aussi à avoir un certain recul et à être plus spectateurice des scènes. Un homme inconnu, un homme de guerre et dont les crimes sont considérés comme un détail. Tuer les Bédouins, c'est un détail pour eux. Kidnapper une Bédouine et la violer, c'est un détail pour eux. Organiser un viol collectif, puis la tuer et l'enterrer au milieu du désert, c'est un détail pour eux.

Au contraire, la deuxième partie est écrite à la première personne et déjà, nous plonge en tant qu'acteurice de la scène. On suit une jeune palestinienne, très angoissée, mais surtout si obsédée par cette histoire qu'elle va à tout prix chercher des informations. Mais comment le faire, elle, palestinienne confiné dans un endroit contrôlé par les israéliens ? Elle ne peut pas bouger comme elle le veut, ne peut pas parler comme elle veut. Ses détails à elle, ils sont réellement mineurs : son nom, ses cartes, ses repas, son paquet de chewing-gum. Pourtant, là-bas, c'est elle qui sera considérée comme criminelle.

Pour avoir cherché vérité s'est passé.

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natasha

5.0 out of 5 stars Such an important story

Reviewed in Canada on 19 December 2023

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It's short, simple to read and devastating.

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Justin Guan

5.0 out of 5 stars Great

Reviewed in the United States on 12 March 2026

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A great book for students

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M Clark

5.0 out of 5 stars A writing style that appeals to all of your senses

Reviewed in Germany on 1 December 2023

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The Palestinian author Adania Shiblie's novel is only tow chapters long but packs a powerful punch. It begins with the rape and murder of a Bedouin girl by Israeli soldiers in 1949. It ends with a modern Palestinian autistic woman investigating the incident by visiting the scene of the crime.

Her writing style is magical appealing to all senses. You feel the dust of the desert, smell petrol and body odor, and hear the sounds of dugs

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Fulvia F.

5.0 out of 5 stars Libro

Reviewed in Italy on 10 January 2025

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Ok

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Tracey 1

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 December 2023

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I was largely ignorant of the situation in Palestine, and was recommended this book. It is a very well written, thought provoking book. It begins after the Nakba in 1949, with the rape, murder and burial of a young Palestinian woman by Israeli soldiers. Years later another Palestinian woman becomes obsessed with this event, the minor detail of the title. It follows her as she tries to piece together the events of that time. It describes the devastating effects of war, violence and the effect of these things on memory and the written, often one-sided, history. This is a book worth reading at any point, but particularly at the moment.

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Ila

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful

Reviewed in Italy on 16 November 2023

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Beautiful and striking

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ISV

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Touching Story

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 September 2020

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Both parts were very interesting and illuminating. The first part I found more moving than the second. The abrupt ending was very sobering and rather unexpected but very much to think about overall.

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Love Life

4.0 out of 5 stars A book to remember.

Reviewed in the United States on 25 September 2025

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Totally enjoy reading this book,

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kyara

4.0 out of 5 stars incredible

Reviewed in the Netherlands on 27 November 2023

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This is such a beautiful book where we get two perspectives in the first part of the book we get to see if from the perspective of an israeli army officer and the second one is from a palestinian female journalist 25 years later.

This story broke me in so many ways, it gives us such insight to the lives there, how everything went, it shocked me through my core but i think everybody needs to read this book, needs to know these stories. Because this is the raw reality of what war does to people, what people do to people. And even now, we are privileged in so many ways, in every way.

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Sonja

4.0 out of 5 stars A novella that packs a punch!

Reviewed in Germany on 29 October 2023

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❝Nothing moved except the mirage.❞

Minor Detail is a novella that certainly packs a punch. It showcases the effects of living under Israeli occupation — the constant anxiety and fear, the bombing, and the structural violence.

The anxiety that the Palestinian protagonist experiences, in the second half of the book, is so palpable that I felt on edge while I was reading it.

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Shane K. Joseph

4.0 out of 5 stars A Realistic Tour of Israel

Reviewed in Canada on 1 November 2023

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I bought the Kindle version of this novella the moment I read that the celebratory event to honour International Booker long-lister and National Book Award finalist Adania Shibli had been cancelled from the Frankfurt Book Fair in light of the Hamas attack on Israel. Since when had the individual literary work of a writer been penalized for the political misbehaviour of her countrymen? Isn’t that why writer’s write? To expose warts in society?

The novel comes in two parts: (a) the brutal rape and murder of a Palestinian girl in Aug 1949 in the Israeli sector of the Negev desert, and (b) the search for her story by a female Palestinian reporter from the West Bank who was born exactly 25 years to the day of the murder. In both parts, the narration is detailed, every action described, even to the step-by-step personal hygiene rituals of the main characters. While this slows the pace, it ramps the tension, for we know that bad things must lie at the end of this plodding. None of the characters have names.

In Part 1, the antagonist is an Israeli army officer sent to guard a border section in the Negev Desert after the declaration of armistice with Egypt. He is a recluse and does not consort with his men, preferring to wander off into the desert at night and keep his own counsel. He is bitten by a spider, and it appears that the infection within is warping his mind, just like the intense desert temperatures are affecting his men. The Israeli mission as voiced by the officer: “It is our duty to prevent them from being here and to expel them for good. After all, Bedouins only uproot, they do not plant things. We, however, will do everything in our power to give these vast stretches the chance to bloom and become habitable, instead of leaving them as they are now, desolate and empty of people.”

When his patrol stumbles on Arab nomads, the soldiers kill without mercy, taking a girl prisoner. The officer exerts his authority over his men when it comes to the spoils; and they help themselves to the dregs when he goes wandering about. Finally, they bury the traces of their savagery in the desert.

 

In Part 2 – we get into the insular world of the Palestinian, restricted to their area of residence as listed in their ID card. For example, Palestinians living in Area A cannot visit Area B, both of which are in the same country. Our protagonist, a Palestinian journalist, has trouble with boundaries because Israeli soldiers are constantly crossing into hers, subjecting her to searches and questioning at every encounter. Consequently, she only travels from home to work and back, and spends her time writing in her apartment when not working. The story of the murdered girl from 1949 obsesses her and she makes plans to visit the Negev to find out more details. It means crossing boundaries (checkpoints) with forged ID and renting a car with the assistance of a friend who has a credit card. To be discovered with this level of subterfuge would be disastrous. Yet, she persists, and we get a tour of Israel, where the old Palestine is steadily making way for the new Israel, where Palestinian villages and settlements have been erased in favour of highways and security walls, and where Israeli settlements are proliferating.

 

She makes it all the way to the place where the murder took place but cannot find out anything more than what she has extracted from Google. On her return, she spots a Palestinian woman, about 70, probably the age of the dead girl, and feels that talking to a local would be more useful than all the museums and heritage centres she could visit. But so doing means crossing another boundary, and there are dire consequences for the vanquished who cross borders.

The Israeli soldiers in this book are portrayed as angry, brutal and disgruntled.  Interesting motifs are used: spiders, chewing gum, the heat, sweat, gasoline, the barren land, check points. – this is not the Promised Land. It's Hell.

The moral of the story: Let sleeping dogs lie; when retracing history, history repeats. It also talks to the utter hopelessness and subjugation of the Palestinian people. I’m glad I picked up this book on impulse. No amount of social media advertising could have led to my purchase that quickly, if at all.

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Richard Marx

5.0 out of 5 stars Good story

Reviewed in Canada on 27 October 2021

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A pair of very sad stories about being a woman during a time of war. It has just enough politics to be link to world events in a thoughtful way. But it’s really a pair of personal stories.

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readingperson

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books I've read this year

Reviewed in Germany on 20 October 2023

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This book is not only well written but also heart-wrenching and loud. The authors voice should and will be heard. Palestinian voices cannot be silenced and history won't be forgotten.

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Micky - bookphenomena

5.0 out of 5 stars Shoes you don't want to walk in but need to

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 October 2023

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Minor Detail is a book of two interconnected phases where certain devices connect the two stories. A dog, spiders and petrol connect the story of the Palestinian girl and the Palestinian man who chases her story from history.

While the writing is easy, the themes in this book are anything but, nor should they be. The girl captured by the Israeli soldiers, her ensuing horrific experience and the dehumanising way she was treated, seared at my psyche. The man in contemporary times pursuing her story taught me something of a snapshot of what is like to live in constant fear and anxiety all your life as a Palestinian. His noble quest despite his paralysing anxiety was compelling and that end still took me by surprise. On reflection, I wonder why I didn't see it coming.

I hope that the spider-soldier-r@pist succumbed to the venom in his body.

I will be processing the feelings this short book has evoked for a while. I recommend it to all.

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P. Mimula

5.0 out of 5 stars An important, horrifying, beautifully written story

Reviewed in the United States on 25 November 2023

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An important, haunting read I would recommend to anyone seeking to understand the history of violence in Israel/Palestine and those who appreciate the art of narration. Shibli tells the story of a massacre of a Bedouin tribe, followed by the rape and murder of its sole survivor, a young woman or girl, first through the eyes of an Israeli military commander, then through those of a Palestinian woman playing detective a generation later. The book helps readers to understand from a Palestinian perspective the fraught modern history of this region from the Palestinian perspective- the Nakba of 1948 during which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians (and Bedouins like Shibli’s family) were driven from the land they had lived on and farmed for generations, the indiscriminate violence against civilians, the conditions under which Palestinians live, and the erasure of Palestinian history and culture in Israeli settlements.

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Reflective and Moved

3.0 out of 5 stars Unanswered Questions

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 February 2025

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Too many unanswered questions. Who is the driver; why is he intent on uncovering the full story.

The ease of movement is unbelievable in a sensitive area.

Was the girl an innocent victim, or was she hidden for a reason.

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Wendy Phillips

3.0 out of 5 stars Slow

Reviewed in Canada on 24 April 2024

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It is a slow read but has issues to discuss

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TheResidentDoctor

5.0 out of 5 stars A book worth reading

Reviewed in India on 15 November 2023

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Can a short 100 pages book hold almost 70 years of terror and occupation??

Yes it does and Adania Shibli has written it straight and poignant.

Honestly, I was ashamed of myself when I realized I had no idea what was going on in Palestinian all these years until I picked up this book. I searched the internet so frantically to understand what's happening.

The book is a two part novella, the first being a story of a girl being abused and shot by the military troops narrated in one of the officer's perspective and how the pressure from the top makes them behave. The way they killed people without any threat, just by finding them out at a place is so inhumane.

And the second part is about the narrator some 50 years later when she finds out about the incident of the girl being raped and murdered in one of the newspapers and states that, what intrigues her is not the news but the time it happened, twenty five years earlier to the date she was born. And that minor detail makes her to risk her own life to find out what happened to the girl.

Every part of the book is really heartbreaking. Though the author writes it straight forward without any emotion, about their daily life of permits, borders, bombing, rape and murders, it's just so hard to read it, specifically when it's not just fiction but is reality. The woman in the second part sets up to find out what happened to the girl in the past for the first time in years,taking maps of the current and past Palestine, narrating us how much has changed, how vast number of villages have been erased only to leave yellow sand areas, the wall that seperates them from the outside world.

It felt like a vast prison with people inside them prisoners being controlled by the soldiers and shoot anyone if they just suspect without any reason!

I just read it and wrote down everything I felt. It might not be enough but more people have to read it and know what's going on. You can find it for free download in kindle.

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TMD

5.0 out of 5 stars heart breaking

Reviewed in Canada on 25 October 2023

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I finished this book in one sitting. It’s short but impactful historical fiction. Told in two parts this book answers no questions, no breakthrough made for the larger conflict. Just the minor details of two incidents, a snippet of time 50 years apart. It’s a glimpse into life in occupied Palestine.

The Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany cancelled an award ceremony and event with the author. This part of an ongoing dismissal of Palestinian voices.

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Barrett Edstrom

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful and Timely Novella.

Reviewed in the United States on 10 November 2023

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This beautifully written novella was hard to put down! in poignant details, the book's Palestinian protagonist narrates the daily moments of her life in the occupied territories, and her obsession with a murder that happened 25 years before. The book's powerful denouement will lingeer with me for a long time. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in current Middle Eastern events, or just appreciates elegant writing.

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Alanna

4.0 out of 5 stars Always good to read the perspectives of others

Reviewed in the United States on 26 November 2023

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A lot of people I follow on social media read this short novella and spoke about how impactful it was. I agree. I love the parallels between the past and the present. All the "minor details" that gave the second chapter and the present being depicted an eerie feel. This book is culturally significant, especially with what's happening now in 2023. I recommend this book. It's always good to read the perspectives of others.

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Christopher

4.0 out of 5 stars Really good book

Reviewed in Canada on 9 January 2024

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This is a good read. Good for a book club.

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virender singh

5.0 out of 5 stars Just wow

Reviewed in India on 10 October 2025

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Awesome

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Amazon Customer

5.0 out of 5 stars Very worthwhile reading!

Reviewed in Germany on 16 June 2023

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I read the book in. one go. A very honest, albeit shocking, picture of today's reality in Israel - where one side does absolutely not understand the other side... Sadly so!

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Faye

4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 May 2024

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Description:

A story in two halves: first, a 'minor' event in 1949 - the capture of a young Palestinian woman by Israeli soldiers. Secondly, the account of another young Palestinian woman, many years later, who becomes obsessed with this footnote of history, and takes a dangerous journey to try and learn more.

Liked:

A very compelling picture of what life is like for Palestinians. Sedately terrifying.

Disliked:

Wanted more of the second half: more of the everyday. Will definitely go looking for it in other Palestinian novels - recommendations very welcome!

Would recommend.

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Shaima

5.0 out of 5 stars WOW

Reviewed in India on 26 November 2023

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I am mindblown! I felt the book in all of me. It gave me a really clear insight into how what I may perceive as strength when viewing

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Cennet Simsek

5.0 out of 5 stars Empfehlenswert

Reviewed in Germany on 19 October 2023

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Tolles Buch. Unglaublich gut geschrieben! Muss man gelesen haben!

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Kamal

5.0 out of 5 stars This book brought me to tears

Reviewed in Canada on 26 December 2023

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Please read

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Henry

5.0 out of 5 stars Everything changes, everything stays the same

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 January 2024

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This book cannot but be read in the light of recent events: not only does it centre on war crimes in the foundation of Israel, Shibli was famously disinvited to receive a prize in Germany because of the political implications of her book (as misread by German critics). The first part details, in remorselessly flat prose, a war crime which took place in the Negev desert in 1949. The second is a first-person narration of a Palestinian women investigating the event, detailing the bureaucratic and violent effects of the apartheid system. The rhymes between the two stories contain the book's lasting impression that everything changes, while everything stays the same.

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billofwrites

5.0 out of 5 stars Once you start, you can't put it down...

Reviewed in the United States on 1 January 2025

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Adania Shibli is a writer's writer...with a violent, all-too-real story here...of an Israeli Army officer who takes a young Palestinan girl prisoner after combat, holding her in his military unit's camp, where she's murdered. Then -- years later, the investigation of this killing -- by an older Palestinian woman who "shares a connection" with the girl. Be aware: this is literary fiction. But the plot moves relentlessly forward...pulling the reader deeper into the mystery. More than anything, it's a character study of a man and woman on opposite sides of a life-and-death struggle -- and no detail here is minor.

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L3M44L0UL

5.0 out of 5 stars Good book

Reviewed in Germany on 5 November 2023

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A well written book

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Wendy

2.0 out of 5 stars Too much concept and not enough connection.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 November 2025

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'Minor Detail' reads like a novel more concerned with form and message than with story or character. Its minimalist style, while deliberate, creates a sense of distance that makes it hard to connect emotionally. It felt like something designed to win prizes than connect with the reader. The writing is OK, but relies too much on cliche.

The decision to leave characters unnamed may be intended to highlight erasure or displacement, but it also makes the narrative feel abstract and impersonal. The second half feels more like an intellectual exercise than an unfolding of plot or character.

Its political undertones are clear and urgent, but felt vaguely propagandaish. For a book dealing with such weighty subject matter, it left me curiously unmoved - probably for that reason.

There is no doubt that some will find the book powerful. For me, I expected more.

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Elle Thinks (Eleanor Franzén)

2.0 out of 5 stars Easier to admire than to love, or even like very much

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 May 2024

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So… okay. Hmm. On the one hand: Very Important Book about the rape and murder of a Bedouin girl by Israeli troops in 1949 and the modern-day experience of a Palestinian woman who becomes obsessed with this historical event. Especially important now, for obvious reasons. There’s some pretty solid symbolism (the constant washing, the obsessive hunting and crushing of spiders) and the parallels across sections work well (a petrol smell, a curled-up garden hose, a barking dog). On the other hand: very little interiority and virtually no characterisation. Who are these people? Does this possibly-autistic modern-day narrator have parents, a family, memories? Does the murderous, rapist 1949 commander have them? Actions and behaviours don’t come out of nowhere; they’re part of a complex web of inheritance and learning that stretches back beyond our own individual births. It’s weird that Shibli’s novella completely elides these. If it’s trying to make a point, it would seem to be that atrocities happen constantly and we can only be bothered to pay attention if there’s some tiny, serendipitous hook for our awareness to snag on, and also perhaps that paying attention does little material good anyway. I don’t object to the darkness of that conclusion, per se, but I wonder if Minor Detail would have made more sense as a short story: it isn’t long anyway, only about 140 pages, but its stylised approach might have seemed less so-what-ish if further condensed.

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Michelle

5.0 out of 5 stars Five stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 December 2023

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This book wasn't on my radar at all until I read in the press that Frankfurt Book Fair had pulled an award that was due to be given to the author as they felt it was 'inappropriate' to award a Palestinian author.

The situation was maddening but there's no such thing as bad publicity and I'm really inspired by the book community for promoting this novel, organising readathons and getting the hype train on the tracks.

Based on true events, this is a fictional account of a woman who was sexually assaulted by isreali soldiers.

Split into two timelines, 1949 and the other more recent, we experience Palastine.

This book is heavy. The heat, the sand, the occupation, you can feel the intensity in each sentence. For such a short book, it's exhausting, but necessary.

Five stars. Do pick this one up folks.

Side note: Censorship in books sucks. Shame on you Frankfurt Book Fair.

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Turtlelove89

2.0 out of 5 stars Free Palestine

Reviewed in the United States on 3 December 2025

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Maybe this book was lost in translation but I really did not enjoy this writing style. She repeated the same things multiple times. The dogs, the spiders, the soldiers washing themselves. I get the point of “Minor detail” and any minor detail can serve as a part of something bigger, but maybe it just wasn’t written to get that point across. I also get that it was written in two parts, the incident and then her researching it. But again, I think it was just lost in translation but I couldn’t get into the story and the repeating over and over was a bit much. But Free Palestine!

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Mrs. Amy Donaldson

3.0 out of 5 stars 3.5

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 February 2025

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Feels like an outline for a longer book. Some interesting ideas and the writer creates great atmosphere but too many unanswered questions about some of the details

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Charlie

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful homage to all that has been lost since 1948

Reviewed in the United States on 22 October 2023

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In this beautifully written novella, we bear witness to how the landscape and geography of Palestine have changed over the years from the perspective of a young Palestinian woman from Gaza. The wall is in progress and the harsher occupational treatment has not been meted out, and yet you can see how the occupation of Palestine has impacted her psyche with every obstacle she overcomes to discover the truth of the crime in 1949 that she has become obsessed with.

It is a story that humanises the lived experiences of a woman from Gaza, a people often seen as numbers as best, and animals as worst. It is a beautiful homage to the villages lost and lives taken or displaced since 1948. And a reminder that people who die on their land, live on in it.

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GiuseppeCasey

5.0 out of 5 stars A simple yet harrowing tale

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 January 2024

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I feel compelled to write this review, despite never writing a book review before, as I want to encourage Ms Shibli to keep writing and telling the overlooked stories of Palestinians, especially now more than ever, as a new wave of people open their ears and eyes to the continued injustices.

It's a very effective short story, and has inspired me to want to collect the stories of the elderly before their history is forgotten.

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john R Beverley

5.0 out of 5 stars New perspective on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians

Reviewed in the United States on 12 May 2025

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Great. Valuable for getting a Palestinian view on the Palestinian Israeli conflict

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Maryam

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 May 2025

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Loved it!

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Joel Marks

5.0 out of 5 stars A knock-out

Reviewed in the United States on 10 October 2021

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This novel is short, and so will be my remarks. And even though the novel is jam-packed with repetition, I found it gripping every step of the way. The author is a master stylist. For the life of me I can't figure out how she does it, for what she has to work with is so minimal, both content- and style-wise. The ending in particular is just brilliant (not to mention its emotional impact), the more I think about it in terms of the story's structure. Politics, even "human interest" aside: I know a writer when I read one. I look forward to more from Adania Shibli.

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Amazon Customer

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book

Reviewed in the United States on 26 June 2025

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Great book!

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Dave Heilman

5.0 out of 5 stars An important book

Reviewed in the United States on 7 May 2025

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Arrived on time and was packaged with care

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David Roop

5.0 out of 5 stars Short but perfect Novella

Reviewed in the United States on 11 June 2023

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This little book intimately renders the super imposition of Israeli maps, might, and military men over the whispering pale sands and moving mirages of the Palestinian experience. You get, in the minor details of gasoline smells, foaming soap, creaking bedsprings, and shell casings, the author's portrait of a barbarous tribe annihilating in 1949 and today a wisp of a prayer of a hope of a life for the Palestinians.

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Kellie

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent

Reviewed in the United States on 10 March 2025

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Short, compelling, powerful. Great book club book which is sure to provide an interesting discussion.

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The TBR Zone

4.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read!!

Reviewed in the United States on 19 November 2023

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A heartbreaking look into one Palestinian reporter's reality as she delves into a horrific story of inocence lost and (almost) forgotten.

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JS

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book I've read this year

Reviewed in the United States on 29 November 2023

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This is the rare book I simply could not put down. The sense of erasure and fear was intense and uncomfortably familiar. As an American, it was hard not to draw comparisons to Native American history or the Black experience under Jim Crow. My favorite read of 2023.

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waseema

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 October 2023

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This book is 109 pages of power. Each word is intentional. Incredibly moving and has made me want to learn more of what is happening in Palestine since the 1940's to the present day. It has changed me forever.

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James Reid

5.0 out of 5 stars Deserving of the 2023 LiBeratur Award

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 December 2023

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Wonderfully written and structured. The two parts of the book merge seamlessly towards the violent conclusion that highlights the terrible tragedy that has been The Palestinian People's fate over the past 75 years.

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Debarara

5.0 out of 5 stars Necessary Reading

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 October 2023

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This is a heartbreaking look at what it means to live under occupation. It shows just how callous we are about human life and for what? Territory? Religion? Money? Those are the true minor details.

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Stephanie

3.0 out of 5 stars important book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 April 2024

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it was decent

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Amina

5.0 out of 5 stars An eye opening, important read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 November 2023

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The author conveys just some of the atrocities of the occupation in this book. It’s a harrowing read, but an extremely important one. 100% recommend

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Gail Boyd

5.0 out of 5 stars Truth in words

Reviewed in the United States on 20 March 2024

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This was well written and in this small book, it said all one needed to know about the crisis for the Palestinians.

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E.Bond

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent novel

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 November 2023

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A tense thriller. Haunting. With a surprising, shocking ending. Very sophisticated writing. The story would make for a hell of a film.

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TAL

5.0 out of 5 stars Important and haunting

Reviewed in the United States on 10 November 2023

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This book is important, now more than ever. It's brutal and hopeless and violent. But it's also a literary masterpiece. In a little over 100 pages, the author manages to say everything necessary.

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Edward J. Bohls

4.0 out of 5 stars The little girl who sold her the gum ...

Reviewed in the United States on 15 January 2021

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... couldn't have known, can't be blamed. The poor girl from 1949 is blameless too, of course, even if she were the silent old woman somehow returned. It's all so sad. The borders crossed. All those villages disappeared.

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Heather L. Hurd

5.0 out of 5 stars Difficult and haunting

Reviewed in the United States on 22 October 2023

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This short book is so powerfully written. It speaks truth to the heaviness of loss, war, and the capacity for cruelty. It's not an easy read, but well worth the time.

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AndreaPF

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful

Reviewed in the United States on 21 December 2023

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It's painful to read though the work is short. But it's powerful and necessary, given what's going on in Gaza and the West Bank.

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Amazon Customer

5.0 out of 5 stars amazing

Reviewed in the United States on 21 October 2024

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Absolutely an amazing book, everyone should read

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Ar Zee

5.0 out of 5 stars Fitting title

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 December 2023

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Easy read. And unbelievable story. So moved. And so fitting for current world affairs.

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Tom Paine

5.0 out of 5 stars powerful etiology of Israel as war zone

Reviewed in the United States on 2 November 2023

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powerful etiology of Israel as war zone Young women as victims. Powerful and beautifully written. Must read in light of Israeli treatment of Ganans

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Brian

5.0 out of 5 stars Spare, and absolutely savage

Reviewed in the United States on 13 December 2020

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This seems like a quiet book, though it is anything but. Rather, it circles around a heart of violence in an offhandedly quiet manner, detailing prismatically what is morally inexplicable. Shibli does so beautifully, expertly, confidently, and inevitably. As much an insight into a moment of geopolitical horror as it is a deeply compassionate work of literary art.

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Jane Toby

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent writing

Reviewed in the United States on 4 September 2020

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I read this book to understand more about Israel/Palestine. The author was very creative in the way she communicated history through the search of one woman. You have to read carefully - and go back again - to find the exact point at which she points to the underlying problem. Highly recommended to understand ourselves as well.

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Kuukua

5.0 out of 5 stars heavy

Reviewed in the United States on 21 October 2023

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For such a small book, it packs a punch.

Heartbreaking in all aspects, for the initial story and the narrator’s experience

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A. D. Thomas

4.0 out of 5 stars Engaging and troubling

Reviewed in the United States on 20 July 2020

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Engaging and troubling. The complexity of a certain part of Israel is shown at the beginning of Israel’s existence and then a couple of generations later.

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hafsa malik

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 November 2023

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Cannot recommend this book enough!

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IOANNIS P. KRONTIRIS

5.0 out of 5 stars amazing reading

Reviewed in Germany on 17 October 2023

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amazing reading! And relevant to the reality we are all experiencing even today

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Kindle Customer

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 October 2023

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An important read. Beautiful prose

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