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Gaza is being bombed. Rashid - an unemployed twenty-seven-year-old, who has stayed up smoking grass and watching it happen - wakes the next day to the news he has been desperate for: He's won a scholarship to study in London. He will leave this place where his mother pickles vegetables and feuds with the neighbors; where his intellectual, wheelchair-bound brother works on a history of their imperiled country.
Meanwhile, Rashid's twin sister, Iman, incensed by the atrocities and inaction around her, has also been up all night, in a meeting that proved yet another disappointment. Drawn to another form of resistance, she finds herself being followed by an unknown fighter.
Written with extraordinary humanity and humor, and moving between Gaza, London, and the Gulf, Out of It follows the lives of Rashid and Iman as they try to forge paths for themselves in the midst of occupation, religious fundamentalism, and the growing divide between Palestinian factions. It is a novel that captures the frustrations and energies of the modern Arab world, and redefines Palestine and its people.
"[An] important and captivating debut novel." - Publishers Weekly
"Dabbagh reveals a gift for using language to portray deep emotions and to illustrate a story with brilliant imagery. Though at times the action and the switch from one setting to another can be confusing, this is a valiant effort." - Library Journal
This information about Out of It was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Selma Dabbagh is a British Palestinian writer based in London. Her short stories have been included in a number of anthologies, including those published by Granta and International PEN. They have also been nominated for the International PEN David TK Wong Award and the Pushcart Prize. Out of It is her first novel.
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