Tag Archives: MENA

The Longest Ongoing Conflict

Book Review: Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa (ISBN: 9781608190461)

Country: Palestine

The conflict between Israel and Palestine is one of the most well-known and longest ongoing conflicts, lasting for decades. Despite being in the news throughout my entire life, I still haven’t formed an opinion on it, and I don’t think I ever will. But that’s okay – one doesn’t need to have an opinion on everything. One just needs to be well-informed and have an understanding on all sides of the story.

That’s where Susan Abulhawa’s book comes in. Through the story of one family, Abulhawa provides readers with a poignant and eye-opening look into the lives of those affected by the conflict. The book follows the life of Amal, who is born in the refugee camp at Jenin. Through her story, we learn about the struggles that her family faced and the hardships they endured. One particularly devastating event was the return of her lost brother, who had been taken by an Israeli soldier and raised to despise his own people.

Abulhawa’s writing style is both engaging and heart-wrenching, making it difficult to put the book down. The interweaving of historical events with the intergenerational saga of a family affected by these events gives this book the feel of a documentary. It’s worth noting that the book is a work of historical fiction, inspired by the 2002 Israeli attacks on the refugee camp in Jenin[1].

Overall, Abulhawa’s book provides a new perspective on one of the world’s longest ongoing conflicts. It’s an important read for anyone wanting to gain a deeper understanding of the issue and the lives that have been affected by it.

Further Reading:

[1] ‘Mornings in Jenin’: The Strange and Circuitous Path of a Palestinian-American Novel – ARABLIT & ARABLIT QUARTERLY (Accessed: 28.02.2023)

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2021 Reading List

This year the theme of my reading list is Middle East and North Africa, or MENA, which includes 20 countries. I don’t really know much about the Middle East or North Africa. At first I thought I would only consider the Middle East, but then decided to extend it to cover North Africa as well.

Sometimes we over-estimate the simplicity of searching for information on the internet. It took me over a year to populate this year’s reading list. It wasn’t because there aren’t enough writers from the MENA region. It was due to the fact that only a few have been translated into a language I can read.

After a lot of research, I was able to narrow down the list to 2 authors per country. I also added some anthologies and collections to the list. My goal this year is to read 30 books, but perhaps I do finish all the books on the list (which can be found here).

Besides reading books written by authors from each of these countries, I will also be studying the religious texts from the religions that came out of this region. Five major world religions have come out of here; Judaism(the Talmud), Zoroastrianism(the Avesta), Christianity(the Bible), Islam(the Quran) and the Baha’i faith(the Kitab-i-Aqbas).

This year I will try to be better about posting my reviews of the books I have read.

Until the,

Happy Reading!