Book description
Palestine, 1941. In the small village of Ein Hod a father leads a
procession of his family and workers through the olive groves. As they
move through the trees the green fruits drop onto the orchard floor;
the ancient cycle of the seasons providing another bountiful harvest.
1948. The Abulheja family are forcibly removed from their
ancestral home in Ein Hod and sent to live in a refugee camp in Jenin.
Through Amal, the bright granddaughter of the patriarch, we witness
the stories of her brothers: one, a stolen boy who becomes an Israeli
soldier; the other who in sacrificing everything for the Palestinian
cause will become his enemy. Amal's own dramatic story threads its way
through six decades of Palestinian-Israeli tension, eventually taking
her into exile in Pensylvania in America.
Amal's is a story of love and loss, of childhood, marriage and
parenthood, and finally the need to share her history with her
daughter, to preserve the greatest love she has. Richly told and full
of humanity, Mornings in Jenin forces us to take a fresh look
at one of the defining political conflicts of our lifetime. It is an
extraordinary debut.
Susan Abulhawa was born to refugees of the Six Day War of 1967,
when her family's land was seized and Israel captured what remained of
Palestine, including Jerusalem. She moved to the USA as a teenager,
graduated in biomedical science and established a career in medical
science. In July 2001, Susan Abulhawa founded Playgrounds for
Palestine, a children's organisation dedicated to upholding The Right
to Play for Palestinian children. Mornings in Jenin is her
first novel and is being published in nineteen countries. She lives in
Pennsylvania with her daughter.
