Title:: [[The Book of Disappearance]] Authors:: [[Ibtisam Azem]] Tags:: #fiction #translatedfiction Read:: [[2025-04-17]] Instagram :: https://www.instagram.com/p/DIkRcCUO1Dp/ ## Editions - Edition:: [[And Other Stories]], 2024, First UK Edition - Original Copyright:: 2014 - Pages:: 239 ## Purchase * Bookshop.org:: https://bookshop.org/a/94437/9780815611110 ## Annotations This is a deft blend of speculative and historical fiction. The speculative — what if all of the Palestinians in Israel suddenly disappeared without a trace? — drives the historical — the generational trauma of the 1948 Nakba, which displaced around 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and properties. The thread throughout this blend are the cities of Jaffa and Tel Aviv, the former ancient Arab city playing the foil for the latter, modern Jewish city.  It’s a hard read for a lot of obvious reasons, not least of which, in my opinion, is the lack of a practical reparative solution to the displacement that happened during the Nakba.  Lastly, it’s impossible not to be thinking of the illegal, inhumane disappearance of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, as well as the similar threats against those exercising their right to free speech over Gaza.  Translated by Sinan Antoon.