The intricate detailing of the cover art on this book is the perfect preview for the complex, rich, layered and beautiful language within. Jumaana Abdu is an Australian-born Egyptian Palestinian woman. She is a talented writer: her phrasing, her thoughts, and the way she leads the reader on.
Aliyah is a multifaceted character. She and her daughter, Sakina, leave the city to move to a rural property in NSW where they hope to establish a new quiet life. Aliyah hires a farmhand, Shep, to assist her to get the property into shape and the two form a strange bond. Shep is a very private Palestinian man. Hana, Aliyah’s childhood friend, also lives in the town. Add to this, local midwife and Kamilaroi woman Billie and her family, and Aliyah’s ideas of a quiet private new life are proving unlikely.
I adored Billie and her family. They’re the straight talkers in this very intense but diluted set of relationships. I greatly enjoyed the discussions between Shep and Aliyah regarding his sermons, faith and religion. It is a fascinating way to learn some of the teachings of Islam through fiction informing us that what some of us may have been taught to believe is actually far from the truth.
There were parts where I had to close the book to think or quietly shed a tear: a scene of the men doing a Palestinian dance joyously, and whenever the word ‘habibi’ is used. Such beauty touched with so much sadness, given the current context of the world.
Lovers of language, of complex relationships, of found family, of learning through the joy of reading, this one is for you. A thoughtful, poignant story of learning to live.
Reviewed by Sarah Krause
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jumaana is a Dal Stivens Award winner and a Wheeler Centre Next Chapter alumnus. Her work features in Thyme Travellers (Roseway Publishing), an international anthology of Palestinian speculative fiction. She has been published elsewhere in Kill Your Darlings, Westerly, Griffith Review, Meanjin, Liminal Magazine, Overland and Debris. During the day, she is a junior medical doctor.
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