Wild Thorns

Description

By (author) Khalifeh Sahar; Translated by Gassick Trevor Le; Translated by Fernea Elizabeth Warnock

Short /annotation:
Wild Thorns offers a glimpse of social and personal relations under Israeli occupation. Featuring unsentimental portrayals of everyday life, its uncompromising honesty and rich emotional core plead elegantly for the cause of survival in the face of oppression.

:
A young Palestinian named Usama returns from working in the Gulf to support the resistance movement. His mission is to blow up buses transporting Palestinian workers into Israel. Shocked to discover that many of his fellow citizens have adjusted to life under military rule, Usama sets out to accomplish his mission …with disastrous consequences. Wild Thorns is the first Arab novel to offer a glimpse of social and personal relations under Israeli occupation. Featuring unsentimental portrayals of everyday life, its uncompromising honesty and rich emotional core plead elegantly for the cause of survival in the face of oppression.

Review quote:
”An impressive narrative of life in the West Bank in which simple profundities are asserted powerfully and poetically.” Morning Star

Review quote:
‘Written with astonishing candor and erudition, Sahar Khalifeh’s novel Wild Thorns is a poignant commentary on the psychological impacts of living under occupation … an exhaustive and embracing meditation on Palestinian society, trauma, and resilience.’

Review quote:
Sahar Khalifeh’s ‘Wild Thorns’ shines a light on the West Bank

Review quote:
‘Khalifeh vividly details daily life in the West Bank … if, as a reader, you are looking to inform yourself about the current atrocious situation in this part of the Middle East, then this novel offers insight into the ingrained dynamics that underscore what is going on now in Gaza. The past informs the present.’

Biographical note:
Sahar Khalifeh was born in Nablus in 1941. She entered into a traditional arranged marriage at 18, and after 13 years left her husband and began writing. Her first novel was confiscated by the Israelis, the second was first published in Cairo. She taught at the University of Iowa and Bir Zeit University, the premier institution of Palestinian higher education. She founded the Women”s Affairs Center in Nablus, with additional branches in Gaza City and Amman. Wild Thorns is her third novel.