Award-winning novel tells the Palestinian side of the founding of Israel. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Ishmael Reed has called Fawal's book monumental, and he's got a point. Fawal deals with big issues, telling the story of a 17-year-old Palestinian whose life changes dramatically with the founding of Israel in 1947. A Palestinian himself, Fawal is completing his doctoral studies at Oxford and teaches film at two universities in Alabama. His book won the 1998 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature.Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Fawal unfolds the life of 17-year-old Yousif Safi, a Palestinian about to graduate from high school. Dreaming of becoming a lawyer and marrying his sweetheart, Yousif is blissfully unaware of the political struggle about to erupt throughout Palestine. When the UN votes to internationalize Jerusalem and its surroundings, Yousif and his family see the beginnings of a violence that becomes full-scale war between Palestinians and Zionist Jews, come to conquer the Promised Land again. Fawal gives voice to the countless Palestinians who have lost homes, families, and ways of life because of political upheavals that continue today. The events Fawal describes took place more than 50 years ago, and their outcomes are well known, yet Fawal writes with such immediacy and fervor that a reader will easily entertain, with Yousif, the hope that peace between Zionists and Palestinians is possible. In a novel that appeals to our common humanity, Fawal begs us to find within ourselves the capability to treat one another with a compassion transcending religious dogma and political cant. (Reviewed May 1, 1998)1579660029Bonnie Johnston From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.