Exclusive Book Launch: The Parisian
Isabella HammadNovember 29, 2019. 17:00 – 19:00
The premiere launch in Palestine of The Parisian by our resident writer Isabella Hammad (Palestine/England) held in conversation with Raja Shehadeh.
The Parisian explores a pivotal period of Palestinian history through the life of a young man from Nablus named Midhat Kamal. Midhat is the son of a wealthy textile merchant who leaves to study medicine in France in 1914, and falls in love. When he returns to Palestine to find it under British rule, and the entire region erupting with nationalist fervor, he must find a way to cope with his conflicting loyalties and the expectations of his community. The story of Midhat’s life develops alongside the idea of a nation, as he and those close to him confront what it means to strive for independence in a world that seems on the verge of falling apart. Against a landscape of political change that continues to define the Middle East, The Parisian explores questions of power and identity, enduring love, and Palestinian life before the Nakba.
Bio:
Isabella Hammad was born in London. She studied English Literature at Oxford and was a 2012 Kennedy Scholar. She was the 2016 Axinn Foundation Writer-in-Residence at NYU, and has received residential fellowships from the Santa Maddalena Foundation and the MacDowell Colony. In 2018 she was awarded the Paris Review Plimpton Prize for Fiction. Her first novel, The Parisian, was published in April 2019 with Grove Press (US) and Jonathan Cape (UK) and will be translated into 14 languages.
Raja Shehadeh is a Palestinian author, lawyer and the founder of the pioneering Palestinian human rights organization al-Haq. Shehadeh is the author of several acclaimed books including Strangers in the House; Occupation Diaries; Language of War, Language of Peace; and Where the Line is Drawn. In 2008, he won the Orwell Prize for Palestinian Walks, published by Profile. Shehadeh lives and works in Ramallah, Palestine.
The book launch was held in partnership with The Educational Bookshop (Jerusalem).
Supported by Nabil Jacir.
