Touch

Touch

By Adania Shibli

An exquisite, powerful novella from celebrated Palestinian writer

Touch centers on a girl, the youngest of nine sisters in a Palestinian family. In the singular world of this novella, this young woman's everyday experiences resonate until they have become as weighty as any national tragedy. The smallest sensations compel, the events of history only lurk at the edges-the question of Palestine, the massacre at Sabra and Shatila. In a language that feels at once natural and alienated, Shibli breaks with the traditions of modern Arabic fiction, creating a work that has been and will continue to be hailed across literatures. Here every ordinary word, ordinary action is a small stone dropped into water: of inevitable consequence. We find ourselves mesmerized one quiet ripple at a time.

“Shibli has created a wonderful exposition of daily Palestinian life…Yes, we all live a little differently in different parts of the world, but this work reminds us that there is more that makes us the same than there is that makes us different. In this sense Touch is a triumph.”
— New York Journal of Books

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Interlink Books 2010
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 160 pages
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 9781566568074