Susan Abulhawa Knihy

Jednouchá palestínska rodina Abulhidžovcov žije v malebnej dedinke a z generácie na generácie im zabezpečujú živobytie olivové háje. Po vzniku štátu Izrael (1948) však stratia domov a pôdu a dostanú sa do utečeneckého tábora v Dženíne. Čo ako túžia po domove, kruté dejiny ukážu, že návrat na pôvodné územia sa pravdepodobne nikdy neuskutoční. V tábore prichádza rodina o malého chlapca. Unesie ho izraelský vojak a vychováva ho so svojou neplodnou manželkou podľa židovských tradícií. O sedem rokov sa v rodine Abulhidžovcov narodí malá Amál, no zakrátko sa z nej stane úplná sirota a vyzerá to tak, že v živote ju nečakajú nijaké radosti. Nádej sa mieša s bezmocnosťou, nenávisťou, pochybovaním o spravodlivosti. Mladosť v sirotinci, štúdium a život v Amerike i návrat strateného brata však Amál dodajú silu a chuť zvládnuť aj tragické udalosti v osobnom živote. Nešťastie však spôsobia ďalšie politické udalosti. Láska, krátke šťastie a vášeň sa zmenia na popol a hrdinku drží pri živote len povinnosť postarať sa o malú dcéru. Brieždenie v Dženíne je pútavým rozprávaním o trpkom osude štyroch generácií jednej palestínske rodiny počas viac ako šesť desaťročí trvajúceho izraelsko-palestínskeho konfliktu.

It is 1947, and Beit Daras, a quiet village in Palestine surrounded by olive groves, is home to the Baraka family. Eldest daughter Nazmiyeh looks after her widowed mother, prone to wandering and strange outbursts, while her brother Mamdouh tends to the village bees. Their younger sister, Mariam, with her striking mismatched eyes, spends her days talking to imaginary friends and writing. When Israeli forces gather outside the town's borders, nobody suspects the terror that is about to descend. Soon the village is burning and, amidst smoke and ash, the family must take the long road to Gaza, in a walk that will test them to their limits. Sixty years later, Mamdouh's granddaughter Nur is living in America. She falls in love with a married man, a doctor who works in Palestine, and follows him to Gaza. There she meets Alwan, the mother of Khaled - a boy trapped in his own body, unable to wake up from a deep blue dream. It is through her that Nur will at last discover the ties of kinship that transcend distance - and even death. The Blue Between Sky and Water is a story of powerful, flawed women; of relocation, separation and heartache; of renewal, family, endurance, and love. Susan Abulhawa brings a raw humanity and delicate authority to the story of Palestine in this devastatingly beautiful tale.

Nahr has been confined to the Cube: nine square metres of glossy grey cinderblock, devoid of time, its patterns of light and dark nothing to do with day and night. Journalists visit her, but get nowhere; because Nahr is not going to share her story with them. The world outside calls Nahr a terrorist, and a whore; some might call her a revolutionary, or a hero. But the truth is, Nahr has always been many things, and had many names. She was named for the river her pregnant mother crossed when she fled from Palestine, but her feckless father called her Yaqoot, Ruby. For a time when she came of age she was Almas, Diamond, a girl who went to hidden parties in Kuwait with powerful men, who sold off parts of herself to keep her family together. She was a girl who learned, early and painfully, that when you are a second class citizen love is a kind of desperation; she learned, above all else, to survive. She was a girl who went to Palestine in the wrong shoes, and without looking for it found what she had always lacked in the basement of a battered beauty parlour: purpose, politics, friends. She found a dark-eyed man called Bilal, who taught her to resist; who tried to save her when it was already too late. Nahr sits in the Cube, and tells her story to Bilal. Bilal, who isn't there; Bilal, who may not even be alive, but who is her only reason to get out.

Nahr, eine Palästinenserin, wird im Exil in Kuwait geboren und wächst zu einer starken Frau heran, die den Tanz als Ausdruck ihrer Freiheit sieht. Nach einer gescheiterten Ehe landet sie in einem Bordell, was sie prägt und stärkt. Ihre Reise nach Palästina führt sie zu Bilal, der ihr die Liebe und das Land ihrer Vorfahren näherbringt. Doch als sie sich Bilals Mission zur Befreiung seines Volkes anschließt, steht sie vor folgenschweren Entscheidungen, die ihr Leben nachhaltig beeinflussen.