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The Book of Disappearance
The Book of Disappearance: A Novel | Ibtisam Azem
5 posts | 2 read | 1 reading | 5 to read
What if all the Palestinians in Israel simply disappeared one day? What would happen next? How would Israelis react? These unsettling questions are posed in Azems powerfully imaginative novel. Set in contemporary Tel Aviv forty eight hours after Israelis discover all their Palestinian neighbors have vanished, the story unfolds through alternating narrators, Alaa, a young Palestinian man who converses with his dead grandmother in the journal he left behind when he disappeared, and his Jewish neighbor, Ariel, a journalist struggling to understand the traumatic event. Through these perspectives, the novel stages a confrontation between two memories. Ariel is a liberal Zionist who is critical of the military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, but nevertheless believes in Israels project and its national myth. Alaa is haunted by his grandmothers memories of being displaced from Jaffa and becoming a refugee in her homeland. Ariels search for clues to the secret of the collective disappearance and his reaction to it intimately reveal the fissures at the heart of the Palestinian question. The Book of Disappearance grapples with both the memory of loss and the loss of memory for the Palestinians. Presenting a narrative that is often marginalized, Antoons translation of the critically acclaimed Arabic novel invites English readers into the complex lives of Palestinians living in Israel.
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SBookLove
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Pickpick

Finished the first book from the International Booker Prize long list and it was so good. Gives a lot to think about!

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BarbaraBB
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According to the quiz I should start with this book on the #InternationalBooker longlist. It‘s definitely one I want to read.

Which book should you read? Quiz is here: https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/features/quiz-which-book-from-the...

LeahBergen I just took the quiz and was recommended this one. It sounds good! 4d
TheKidUpstairs Love this! I've started Book of Disappearance, so far so good, I've only read a bit but I like the narrative tone and style. @LeahBergen I liked Reservoir Bitches! Not a perfect collection, but one that gets stronger as you go through it. The quiz recommended this one for me 4d
LeahBergen @TheKidUpstairs That one sounds good, too. I liked @BarbaraBB ‘s review of it. 👍 4d
See All 17 Comments
LeeRHarry That‘s the one for me! 😊 (edited) 4d
BarbaraBB @TheKidUpstairs I liked Perfection! I also like that we all get different results! 4d
BarbaraBB @LeahBergen I am interested in that one too thanks to @TheKidUpstairs review! 4d
BarbaraBB @LeeRHarry Wow that‘s a cool outcome! 4d
BarbaraBB @Bookwormjillk One that I really want to read! 4d
CarolynM The one I got does sound like my kind of thing but it‘s not released here until the end of April ☹️ 4d
BarbaraBB @CarolynM Here as well. I want to read that one too. I honestly want to read so many of them 🤦🏻‍♀️ 4d
ImperfectCJ Ooh! I love a quiz! Based on the description, I'm not sure I got the result I did from the answers I gave, but I'm game 4d
ImperfectCJ Not sure *how* I got the result I did. Missing words make a difference (wish I could edit comments) 4d
BarbaraBB @ImperfectCJ The one originally written in Kannada, a language I had never heard of! 4d
BarbaraBB @ImperfectCJ You can edit your own comments by clicking on it! 4d
ImperfectCJ @BarbaraBB It doesn't give me that option, at least not on the Android app (just delete, mark as spolier, and cancel). 3d
BarbaraBB @ImperfectCJ Ah I didn‘t know. It must be an iPhone tool then 3d
57 likes17 comments
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ChaoticMissAdventures
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Really excited for this list. This award always expands my reading - in country, culture, and style of writing. I am most excited to get to the tagged (as soon as I am done with the women's Prize madness)

lil1inblue I love this headline! 2w
ChaoticMissAdventures @lil1inblue I know right?? I love that these prizes lately are bringing new authors to the forefront. My library doesn't have most of these but I am hoping the prize will have them picking them up, I requested 2 of them for buying. 2w
BarbaraBB I am so excited too. Most of them sound real good and I love to discover new authors this way. It‘s going to be madness with the WP coming soon too! 2w
38 likes3 comments
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Settings
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Pickpick

Half thought experiment - All Palestinians in Israel disappear - how would those left behind react?

Half record of the trauma experienced by Palestinians.

Very sad book and very political. The sympathy is with the Palestinians but the Jewish POV chapters are very human - characters are portrayed as a misguided and self-interested, not as monsters.

Smrloomis Interesting. Thanks for the helpful review. 5y
40 likes2 comments
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Smrloomis
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This looks really interesting 🤔 I also like that the publisher put “Translated from the Arabic by Sinan Antoon” on the cover!

Settings Reading this one now - it is interesting 5y
Smrloomis @Settings ooooh I‘m going to have to get a copy. Let me know what you think when you finish! 5y
58 likes1 stack add2 comments