In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story

New
Paperback
2004
$11.53

An intimate and personal narrative presented, unusually, from the Palestinian side, In Search of Fatima reflects the author's personal experiences of displacement, loss and nostalgia against a backdrop of the major political events that have shaped the Middle East conflict. In Search of Fatima is a powerful biographical story, but it is also a book which transcends its author's own experience. It speaks for the millions of displaced people all over the world who have lived suspended between their old and new countries, fitting into neither. An account not of the physical hardship and abuse suffered by many refugees, but rather an exploration of the subtler privations of psychological displacement and loss of identity.

Synopsis

An intimate and personal narrative presented, unusually, from the Palestinian side, In Search of Fatima reflects the author's personal experiences of displacement, loss and nostalgia against a backdrop of the major political events that have shaped the Middle East conflict. In Search of Fatima is a powerful biographical story, but it is also a book which transcends its author's own experience. It speaks for the millions of displaced people all over the world who have lived suspended between their old and new countries, fitting into neither. An account not of the physical hardship and abuse suffered by many refugees, but rather an exploration of the subtler privations of psychological displacement and loss of identity.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 451
Edition: New
Publisher: Verso Books
Published: 21 Apr 2004
ISBN 10: 1859845614
ISBN 13: 9781859845615

Media Reviews

This is an important memoir, beautifully written by an intelligent, sensitive woman that fills a void in studies of Zionism. It should help those of us who do not understand why growing numbers of Muslims and not a few Christians have lost faith with Western pretensions of fairness. -- Financial Times In Search of Fatima brings to life more effectively than anything I have read the fears, ambivalence and confusions experienced by Palestinians following the 1947 UN Partition Plan, and ultimately the palpable sense of loss. -- Women's Review of Books Karmi's great achievement is to humanise the Palestinian predicament. Violent uprooting and exile have permanent psychological effects, which, as the Jewish people discovered, are not necessarily assuaged by the passage of time. We need counter-narratives like this, because we have recently learnt that it is not only parochial, but also dangerous to ignore the pain and rights of others. -- Independent Keenly observed, fierce, honest and yet light of touch, Ms Karmi's memoir of dislocation illustrates just how inseparable, for many people, the personal and the political still can be. -- Economist

Author Bio

Ghada Karmi was born in Jerusalem and left Palestine for England in 1949. She is a medical doctor and has held a number of research appointments on Middle Eastern politics and culture. Her publications include Jerusalem Today: What Future for the Peace Process? and, as co-editor with E. Cotran, The Palestinian Exodus, 1948-1998.