Tag 2 - Das Buch, das ich als nächstes lesen möchte

...vorausgesetzt, ich kann es finden:

Susan Albuhawa, Mornings in Jenin

Eine Palästinensische Familiengeschichte, beginnend 1948, bis in die Gegenwart. Verschiedene Kinder der Familie wachsen getrennt voneinander auf.

Die Autorin erzählt, die Idee zu diesem Buch sei dem Angriff auf Jenin geschuldet.

Bei Mondoweiss gibt es einen längeren Artikel von ihr selbst über das Buch:

I conceived of this novel when a massacre occurred in the refugee camp of Jenin; and so, part of this book was inspired by the people of that camp and the stories that emerged from there in April of 2002.

As far as how much of this is autobiographical, I think for a story to be authentic, a writer can only really write what he or she understand not just on an intellectual level, but also on a visceral level. At least that is what I find is true for me. I don’t think that necessarily means that a writer would have to have lived the experiences that he or she writes about, but it does mean that we are or become wholly attached to our characters; I think it is important that we understand and/or love our characters and even more necessary, that we do not judge them or judge their actions. Or to ascribe artificial motivations to their actions that might be self-serving to the writer. This pre-requisite attachment to our characters and the visceral understanding of them, I think is what gives some narratives an inherent authority.

That said, while there are certainly some parallels between my life and that life of Amal, the main character, particularly her coming to the US and becoming a single mother of a daughter, she is still very separate from me as all the characters are separate from both myself and each other. There is, however, one chapter in the book that is entirely autobiographical. The chapter is called The Orphanage. I put the lead character, Amal, into my life for the three years that I spent in an orphanage for girls in East Jerusalem. This institution, by the way, was established by a wealthy Palestinian heiress from one of the oldest and most prominent Jerusalem families – The Husseinis, to whom so many of us girls in that orphanage owe a debt of gratitude.

Bei Amazon ist es erhältlich, auch recht gut bewertet.

Es gibt inzwischen eine Reihe von Büchern palästinensischer Autoren - leider wenig bekannt. Ich suche weiter.