Two narratives, fifty years apart, both circling a single act of violence in the Negev desert. Shibli writes with a clinical precision that makes the horror more present, not less — the flat, documentary tone is not detachment, it is a formal choice that implicates the reader in the act of looking.
This is a short novel that does not let go. Elisabeth Jaquette’s translation is immaculate, preserving the strange, suspended quality of the prose. It was longlisted for the International Booker Prize. Read it in one sitting if you can.
Year 2020
Price £8.99
Category Literary Fiction