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  • Going Home

  • A Walk Through Fifty Years of Occupation
  • By: Raja Shehadeh
  • Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi
  • Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
  • 4.9 out of 5 stars (7 ratings)

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Going Home

By: Raja Shehadeh
Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi
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Summary

In a dazzling mix of reportage, analysis, and memoir, the leading Palestinian writer of our time reflects on aging, failure, the occupation, and the changing face of Ramallah.

In Going Home, Raja Shehadeh, the Orwell Prize-winning author of Palestinian Walks, takes us on a series of journeys around his hometown of Ramallah. Set in a single day - the day that happens to be the 50th anniversary of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank - the audiobook is a powerful and moving record and chronicle of the changing face of his city.

Here is a city whose green spaces - gardens and hills crowned with olive trees - have been replaced by tower blocks and concrete lots; where the Israeli occupation has further entrenched itself in every aspect of movement, from the roads that can and cannot be used to the bureaucratic barriers that prevent people leaving the West Bank. Here also is a city that is culturally shifting, where Islam is taking a more prominent role in people’s everyday and political lives and in the geography of the city.

A penetrating evocation of memory, pain, and place that is lightened by everyday joys such as delightful accounts of shared meals and gardening, Going Home is perhaps Raja Shehadeh’s most moving and painfully visceral addition to his series of personal histories of the occupation, confirming Rachel Kushner’s judgment that “Shehadeh is a buoy in a sea of bleakness.”

©2020 Raja Shehadeh (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History
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    5 out of 5 stars
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Grounded Walk Through Modern History of Palestine

This is a wonderful book. The author takes you through the modern history of Palestine whilst giving the story of his own personal life, grounded in geography and nature. It is a very personable and accessible window on the difficult history of this region, from the point of view of a person - not a politician or historian. Highly recommended if you'd like to try to understand more about the conflict between Israel and Palestine from the perspective of actual impacts on normal people / the public.

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A story of collective survival and suffering

What I liked about this story is that it isn't overly political but narrates the common humanity of the Palestinians who are suffering an occupation by a state that itself is losing its soul in the name of that occupation. It talks of the every day experience of living in Palestine, and the laments of the author as its people turn to religious dogmatism and extremism, maybe as an antidote to the chaos of their lives. Of course there is nothing unique about this oppression, the same is happening to the Uighurs, or Tibetan's, but Israeli's should read this book and ask themselves, what if they were the occupied and the Palestinians the oppressors, how would they feel to be living in such a state? What language would they use to describe such an oppression? We're all equally human, we can all suffer and this book reminds us of that. And like the author says, nothing lasts forever and therein lies his message of hope.

A good listen.

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2 people found this helpful