Review by New York Times Review
THE DEATH AND LIFE OF THE GREAT LAKES, by Dan Egan. (Norton, $27.95.)Although climate change, population growth and invasive species are destabilizing the Great Lakes' wobbly ecosystem, Egan splices together history, science, reporting and personal experience into a taut and cautiously hopeful narrative. THE GIFT: (Or, Techniques of the Body), by Barbara Browning. (Coffee House/Emily Books, paper, $15.95.) This smart, funny, heartbreaking and often sexy novel concerns an artist and professor of performance studies (like the author) engaged in a continuing art project that bears an uncertain resemblance to her life. MISS BURMA, by Charmaine Craig. (Grove, $26.) A character based on Craig's Jewish grandfather marries a woman who belongs to a non-Burmese ethnic minority, the Karen, in a novel that reimagines their extraordinary lives. Their mixed-race daughter becomes the "Miss Burma" of the title. Themes of identity, longing and trust are addressed over nearly 40 years of Burmese history. THE ALLURE OF BATTLE: A History of How Wars Have Been Won and Lost, by Cathal J. Nolan. (Oxford University, $34.95.) A historian argues that focusing on battles is the wrong way to understand wars, because attrition is what almost always wins. This thoughtprovoking book suggests a new approach to military history. ERNEST HEMINGWAY: A Biography, by Mary V. Dearborn. (Knopf, $35.) A perceptive and tough-minded biographer, Dearborn is immune to the Hemingway legend, and concentrates instead on what formed him as a man and a writer. She skillfully covers an enormous range of rich material. MUSIC OF THE GHOSTS, by Vaddey Ratner. (Touchstone, $26.) This tenaciously melodic novel explores art and war as an orphaned Cambodian refugee travels from her new home in Minneapolis to the Buddhist temple where her father was raised by monks, hoping against hope that he is still alive. The author discerns the poetic even in brutal landscapes and histories. WHERE THE LINE IS DRAWN: A Tale of Crossings, Friendships and Fifty Years of Occupation in Israel- Palestine, by Raja Shehadeh. (New Press, $25.95.) In deeply honest and intense essays, Shehadeh, a civil rights lawyer who now lives in Ramallah, describes his psychological and physical crossings into Israel. THE WITCHFINDER'S SISTER, by Beth Underdown. (Ballantine, $28.) An English witchhunter caused more than a hundred women to be hanged in the 1640s. In this ominous, claustrophobic novel, Underdown imagines his pregnant, widowed sister, who sees the malignant forces at work but is powerless to resist. FEN: Stories, by Daisy Johnson. (Graywolf, paper, $16.) The stories in Johnson's debut collection explore the shape-shifting world of the Fens, flat, once flooded lands in the east of England. The full reviews of these and other recent books are on the web: nytimes.com/books
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [July 16, 2018]
Review by Booklist Review
With the publication of Palestinian Walks (2008), Shehadeh recognized Henry Abramovitch as an important walking companion in his lyrical, bittersweet record of the encroaching Israeli occupation of his Palestinian homeland. That mention becomes the focus of Shehadeh's newest title, in which he chronicles a half-century of Palestinian-Israeli relations through his friendship with the Jewish, Canadian, Yale psychology PhD Abramovitch, who settles in Jerusalem. Their initial 1977 meeting is noted with a seemingly dismissive detail preference for black coffee because of lactose intolerance: we both belong to the same racial group and are among the majority (70%) of intolerants, Abramovitch notes, immediately emphasizing their commonality. Throughout the decades, the two friends maintain respect, admiration, and most definitely deep love for each other amidst searing arguments and piercing disappointments. Despite bearing witness to senseless violence on both sides of the titular line, Shehadeh a Ramallah-based human-rights activist and lawyer writes a gentle, hopeful book of what could and should be. His belief in we will have a sovereign state, lasting peace, and mutual forgiveness inspires, exemplifies, and leads.--Hong, Terry Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Shehadeh (Palestinian Walks) chronicles trips he has taken from his home in Ramallah, Palestine, into Israel over the past 50 years. The Palestinian author and activist often visits friends in Israel; during his travels he considers the differences between their lives and that of his family, who were forced to leave their home in Jaffa. The stories juxtapose everyday life with the Israeli occupation of the region, as Shehadeh visits family, attends a concert, goes to work, and is stopped and demeaned at border checkpoints for being Palestinian. Shehadeh intersperses his thoughts on the political situation in -Palestine, including the Oslo Accords, the Nakba and Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Throughout, he considers his friendship with Henry, a Canadian Jew who relocated to Jerusalem. Henry and Shehadeh's close friendship, estrangement, and reconciliation often mirrors Shehadeh's conflicted feelings toward Israeli-Palestinian politics and provides an outlet for his musings on the nature of friendship and political activism. VERDICT A sincere and thoughtful look at life in Palestine. Recommended for readers seeking a personal perspective on the Israel-Palestine conflict.-Rebekah Kati, Durham, NC © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
One of Palestine's most respected writers reflects on 50 years of Israeli occupation and riven friendships.With grieving family driven out of their Jaffa home after the founding of Israel in 1948, an event the Palestinians refer to as the Nakba ("Catastrophe"), Shehadeh (Language of War, Language of Peace: Palestine, Israel and the Search for Justice, 2015, etc.), who was born in 1951, grew up among a deeply oppressed people under the increasingly "imperial arrogance" of the occupier. In these essays, fashioned like short stories, the author looks back on five decades of occupation through the prism of unlikely friendships with Israelis and sticky crossings between the two sides. Shehadeh's father was an enlightened lawyer who believed fervently in the possibility of peace between the Palestinians and Israelis, even bringing his son, recently returned from studying law in London, to hear Egyptian president Anwar Sadat address the Knesset in Tel Aviv on Nov. 20, 1977, an experience the author recounts in "Henry." From this first encounter between two young seekersHenry, an Israeli with a doctorate in psychology from Yale, and the author, who was trying to figure out his own way in life amid the "stifling, traditional society" of Ramallaha lifelong friendship was born, though it became rocky as the two Intifadas spiraled out. Indeed, as Shehadeh immersed himself in human rights activism, "politics began to cast a dark shadow over my relationship with Henry." In other essays, the author chronicles his return to Jaffa, the city of his fatherwho, we learn, was murdered in the 1980s by an Israeli collaboratorand wonders what his life would be like had his family insisted on staying. Shehadeh learned Hebrew once it became clear that the Israeli occupation was not going to end, and the border patrols and restrictions grew increasingly onerous and terrifying. A beautifully impressionistic exploration of shared cultural understanding despite the narrowing of borders. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
