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    Out Of It: a novel about Israel, Palestine and family
    Unavailable
    Out Of It: a novel about Israel, Palestine and family
    Unavailable
    Out Of It: a novel about Israel, Palestine and family
    Ebook359 pages7 hours

    Out Of It: a novel about Israel, Palestine and family

    By Selma Dabbagh

    3/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this ebook

    Gaza is being bombed. Rashid - an unemployed twenty-seven year old who has stayed up smoking grass watching it happen - wakes to hear that he's got the escape route he's been waiting for: a scholarship to London. His twin sister, Iman - frustrated by the atrocities and inaction around her - has also been up all night, in a meeting that offers her nothing but more disappointment. Grabbing recklessly at an opportunity to make a difference, she finds herself being followed by an unknown fighter.

    Meanwhile Sabri, the oldest brother of this disparate family, works on a history of Palestine from his wheelchair as their mother pickles vegetables and feuds with the neighbours.

    Written with extraordinary humanity and humour, and moving between Gaza, London and the Gulf, Out of It is a tale that redefines Palestine and its people. 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 divisions between Palestinian factions. It tells of family secrets, unlikely love stories and unburied tragedies as it captures the frustrations and energies of the modern Arab world.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateDec 5, 2011
    ISBN9781408824306
    Unavailable
    Out Of It: a novel about Israel, Palestine and family

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    Reviews for Out Of It

    3/5

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    • 4/5
      Dabbagh delivers a compelling story of a brother and sister who are trying to carve a life for themselves despite the chaos around them. Both characters are well developed. Rashid sees a bright future for himself when he is awarded a scholarship to London, but things don't go exactly as he had planned. Always feeling like a outsider in his own family, Rashid struggles with his family's past, present, and future. His sister, Iman, is also struggling to figure out what she wants. Seeing the destruction and uncertainty surrounding her family, she finds herself wanting to take action. Iman's own path leads her away from home giving her a chance to get a new perspective of her life and family. Dabbagh does a good job at showing the reader the violence, destruction, struggle, and uncertainty of Gaza. Overall this was a powerful story.
    • 4/5
      A strong message.I'm finding this book very hard to rate - the content was 5 star, but unfortunately the editing let it down. When I frequently find that I am rereading paragraphs to extract their meaning, the flow of the narrative is lost and the book loses its punch. However, this is the author's first full length novel and I'd be interested to read another if she writes a second.Rashid and Iman are twins, living in Gaza. Rashid copes with the pressures by smoking marijuana and getting stoned, his sister, Iman, finds herself drawn into working with a rebel movement. Their mother is a strong woman with a secret past, while their father has left to live and work in an unnamed Gulf country. They also have an older brother who has lost his wife and child in a bomb blast and now lives in a wheelchair since he also lost legs.The tensions are palpable, with some excellent quotes that give a feel for the stresses of life under bombardment: "There were days when everything needed to be checked. The trees with the sea beyond them were all 'aadi', normal. The cars were 'aadi' too. The tents with his neighbours in were the same as ever.".And: "Apache. Are we to be killed off in reservations by helicopters named after others killed off in reservations?"All around them are suspicions, is your neighbour a traitor, who can you trust?Rashid and Iman both leave for London and the Gulf respectively. Both trips offer further insights into life back home - Iman sits in a cafe in a huge mall, concerned at the amount of glass overhead and the injuries that would result in the event of a bomb. Rashid works on his thesis with a professor who had been in Palestine with the British around 1948.When both siblings meet up in London along with Rashid's friend Kahaled and a rebel leader, Ziyyad Ayyoubi, who is there to speak at a pro Palestinian demonstration, events start to escalate with dire consequences.I read this book for a reading group that included one lady of Palestinian origin and an invited guest who visited the area regularly and raised money for a charity providing respite and medical assistance for victims of the atrocities. It was an eye-opening evening.Although I have read a number of books set in Palestine, each one is slanted in a slightly different direction and informs me more of the situation.Also read:Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa (5 stars)The Kites are Flying by Michael Morpugo (5 stars)Day After Night by Anita Diamant (4.5 stars)Miral by Rula Jebreal (4 stars)The Attack by Yasmina Khadra (4 stars)When the Bulbul Stopped Singing: A Diary of Ramallah Under Siege by Raja Shehadeh (4 stars)When I Lived in Modern Times by Linda Grant (3 stars)