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Cover of Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa

Mornings in Jenin

  • 352 pages · about 6 hours
  • First published 2010
  • 9 editions

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1 About this book

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 fathers a family and falls victim to an Israeli bullet, and his grandchildren struggle against tragedy toward freedom, peace, and home. This is the Palestinian story, told as never before, through four generations of a single family.

The very precariousness of existence in the camps quickens life itself. Amal, the patriarch's bright granddaughter, feels this with certainty when she discovers the joys of young friendship and first love and especially when she loses her adored father, who read to her daily as a young girl in the quiet of the early dawn. Through Amal we get the stories of her twin brothers, one who is kidnapped by an Israeli soldier and raised Jewish; the other who sacrifices everything for the Palestinian cause.

  • Politics and government
  • Palestinian Arab Refugees
  • Palestinian Arabs
  • Arab-Israeli conflict
  • Historical fiction
  • Middle east
  • Palestiniens

2 About Susan Abulhawa

Born 1967

Susan Abulhawa (Arabic: سوزان أبو الهوى; born 1970) is a Palestinian-American writer, and activist. She wrote the novels Mornings in Jenin, The Blue Between Sky and Water (2015), and Against the Loveless World (2020). She founded the children's organization Playgrounds for Palestine.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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