Literature & Drama Editor Gemma Bini highlights the work of Palestinian writers who use literature to resist erasure and illuminate the realities of life under occupation and exile.
While fiction might seem to create a distance from factual reality, it has historically been deeply intertwined with acts of resistance. Literature offers a space to question the narratives that shape our lives, especially by amplifying voices marginalised or silenced by cultural hegemony. Modern counter-discourses in literature, for instance, provide an opportunity to revisit the history of colonialism and to hear the perspectives of its victims, perspectives often absent from canonical works that tend to center “the winners.” As readers, we can easily be swept up by the familiar and overlook the viewpoints that remain in the shadows of fiction. For this reason, it is crucial to follow the spark ignited by resistance literature and to pay closer attention to what has been forgotten, or deliberately erased.
Although the era of colonialism might seem distant, we continue to witness the rise of modern empires and the suffering of those who fall victim to them. As populations are massacred or displaced, their histories and voices are too often silenced. Today, Israel’s ongoing genocide in Palestine exemplifies this process. Given that many Western nations stand as allies of Israel, the counter-narratives emerging from this side of history are frequently overlooked. Yet, as an act of resistance, numerous Palestinian writers have been documenting and bearing witness to their people's experiences. For those who wish to engage more deeply with these powerful expressions of resilience, the following are three contemporary books that offer a compelling place to begin.
Mosab Abu Toha’s Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear
Mosab Abu Toha is a contemporary Palestinian poet and essayist, born in the Al-Shati refugee camp in 1992. He earned a degree in English from the Islamic University of Gaza and later founded the Edward Said Library, the first English-language library in the area. After several years teaching English, he became a visiting scholar at Harvard University.
In 2022, he published Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear, his debut poetry collection, which vividly captures the daily anguish of life under siege. In an interview with Tareq S. Hajjaj, Abu Toha described these poems as a countercurrent testimony to mainstream portrayals of Palestinian life in the media: “I speak about wars and destruction in my book, but I’m bringing up what is hidden behind the details. I write what cameras can’t show.”
The collection went on to win the American Book Award, the Palestine Book Award, and Arrowsmith Press’s 2023 Derek Walcott Poetry Prize. After October 7, Abu Toha and his family attempted to escape to the United States. The process was brutal: they were separated, and he was severely beaten in a facility in southern Israel. They eventually managed to evacuate and now live in Syracuse, New York. Since then, the poet has published another collection, Forest of Noise, reflecting on his recent experiences.
Suad Amiry’s Mother of Strangers
Suad Amiry is an author and architect. Her family moved from Palestine to Jordan, where she began her architectural studies which then led her to Michigan and Scotland. She only returned to Ramallah in 1981 at the age of 30, where she has lived since. She wrote and published Mother of Strangers in 2023.
The novel is set in Jaffa, between 1947 and 1951, during the final years of British rule in Palestine. The story follows two teenagers, Subhi, a fifteen-year-old mechanic, and Shams, the thirteen-year-old girl he loves, as their lives are upended by the Israeli bombardments of 1948. Once known as the “mother of strangers,” a city renowned for its openness and hospitality, Jaffa becomes a place of destruction and exile. As the city falls and its inhabitants flee for safety, Subhi and Shams’s love story is torn apart by the violence of displacement.
Amiry’s novel offers a moving portrayal of a pivotal and tragic historical moment, one shaped by British colonialism, Israeli expansion, and the irrevocable transformations these forces inflicted on Palestinian lives. Mother of Strangers was longlisted for the Palestine Book Awards.
Raja Shehadeh’s We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I
Raja Shehadeh is a Palestinian author, lawyer, and human rights activist. Born into a prominent family, his grandfather served as a judge in Mandate Palestine, his uncle founded the Haifa-based newspaper Al-Karmil, and his father, Aziz Shehadeh, was a lawyer and political detainee, one of the first to publicly advocate for a two-state solution.
It is precisely the figure of his father that inspired Shehadeh’s 2022 memoir, We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I. The book delves into their complex and often fraught relationship: as a young man, Raja struggled to recognize his father’s courage, while Aziz, in turn, failed to fully appreciate his son’s activism. The two never reconciled, as Aziz was tragically stabbed to death outside his home in 1985.
Years later, Shehadeh reflects on their relationship against the broader backdrop of Palestine’s turbulent history, intertwining the personal and the political with great emotional clarity. The memoir received widespread acclaim, becoming a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.