This is a thick book that reads fairly slow. If you can get through it, though, the refugee's perspective of the Palestine/Israel conflict is worth the occasional yawn. This certainly wasn't the history of Israel I read about in high school and junior college. ( )

Its a 400 page book, but you would hardly feel that. If anything, you are left wishing she had written more!

In a recent interview, Ghada Karmi mentioned that there is more to the story - she did manage to trace Fatima. I hope that she writes a sequel, if not a trilogy of the "Palestinian Story." ( )

A truly sensitive story about displacement from Palestine and re-settlement in England as an immigrant, in the backdrop of the Palestinian struggle.

The book opens with a chilling recollection of events leading to her family's expulsion from Palestine in 1948. The scene shifts to England, where her family resettles and struggles between an Arab and English identity.

Some of the most absorbing moments in the book include the racism that Ghada faces during the 1956 and 1967 wars and the subsequent breakdown of her marriage on learning that her British husband was not on the side of the Palestinians. ( )