APAN is excited to be working with award-winning playwright and poet Samah Sabawi on a new initiative The Book Room – a series of monthly interviews with authors to explore works about Palestinian and Indigenous experiences.This is a FREE event, registration is essential!
Tuesday November 24th at 8:30pm AEDT please note this makes it 8:00pm in SA, 7:30 in QLD, 7:00pm in NT, and 5:30pm in WA.
Morsi will be discussing his book ‘Palace of the Angels’ which was shortlisted for the 2020 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Christina Stead Prize for Fiction and longlisted for the Voss Literary Prize 2020
Read the book, hear the discussion and ask your questions!
Look forward to seeing you on the 24th of November!
QLD Writers Collective review The Palace of Angels
Reviewed by Ian Lipke
To say I have read the book does it no justice
unless I tell something of the tragedies that immerse themselves in the very
soul, and in the darkest moments, sprinkle bright sunshine in the pages. This
is a book whose tentacles source every emotion. It’s a comforting book and a
tragic one. It is a story of hope in a wasteland where man spends his days
thinking and plotting to kill more of the enemy, indistinguishable other than
as Israeli or Palestinian. It is a terrible indictment of black deeds and an occasional
deliverer of hope to the dispossessed. Throughout is death’s determination to
take human life as it pleases. It does not discriminate on the grounds of
nationhood, age or gender.
This book seems to have two foci, yet it
doesn’t seem planned that way. One part ends and, without our immediately
realizing it, we are in an aspect of the same story with a change of players.
Somehow this blip in the atmosphere works. The book is told from a Palestine
viewpoint. It begins with Palestinian boys, out buying weapons for use by their
own side. They plan to pay for them with hashish. They find themselves in a lot
of trouble when a patrol they meet near one of the controlled routes across the
border plans to kill them. There is no reason for this contemplation of murder.
It’s just what you do. The boys’ escape is gut-wrenching, sickening when one
fails to survive.
Violence is the ever-dwelling companion, in
homes and streets, in parks, and alleys serving as playgrounds, one moment
alive, then the telltale sound of the drone overhead preparing to drop its
deadly load. Day follows day when Israeli troops do their utmost to cause a
Palestinian flare-up and consequent punishment for not holding one’s peace. Yet
into such an environment creeps love in the forms of Fathi and Farida. This is
a love that melds two tormented souls whose goal of having a child becomes
increasingly unlikely. Saving enough money to pay for a desperate search for
medical help, and then forced to wait months for permission to travel to Cairo
and thence to Montreal to consult a paediatric specialist, they are astounded
to discover that the uncle who was supposed to meet them at the airport in
Canada, does not turn up. Stranded, with little English, in bleak Montreal,
they are taken in by a kindly Canadian. The attempt to gain answers to Farida’s
lack of success in falling pregnant is unresolved, and they are required to
return home. Back at home, a miracle happens and in November 2005 Hamada, a son
is born.
The Gaza strip and other geographical areas in
dispute is the land where Hamada has his opportunity to develop into a man. He
grows strong with an insatiable desire to match Kelly Slater at surfing. His
zest for life appeared limitless. But fate takes what is most promising and
precious. Hamada is killed in an air strike that flattens his bedroom, one
incident in a continuing war of retribution. Just a day or two earlier the
Palestinian position had been put by Fathi, Hamada’s father, when he gave the
reason for Israel’s actions, “Because for men who believe God only loves them it’s easy to kill”
(105). Hamad’s death tips his father’s mind into a single-minded determination
to kill Israelis. His death soon follows, and the second part of the novel
sneaks into our consciousness as though it had been there from the outset.
New characters emerge in the forms of Adnan
and Linah. Adnan, a Palestinian, pursues an impossible love for an Israeli
soldier Linah, while she in turn, returns his love. Constant in both stories is
the terror that the Palestinians feel under the Israelis and the deep suspicion
characteristic of both sides. Guns and explosives are in plentiful supply and
are used as regularly as you or I might throw a ball in a bowling alley. But
what is more important is not the killing weapons so much as the intransigence
of the leaders on both sides, the unwillingness to seek a responsible solution.
The love of Adnan and Linah points the way to lasting peace, but this is not
allowed to develop. Linah is sent behind her own lines as a punishment for not
hating enough, for not causing large numbers of Palestinians to lose their
tempers and be punished.
The author rends our hearts with his beautiful
prose. It is spare but scores a heavy hit upon our vulnerabilities. We would
like to reach out to these doomed people, but realise our ways will benefit no
one as the killing of one by the other says more about the people than
anything. It tells, more sickeningly than anything I know, that civilization
has failed in this area of the world. One wants a Great Flood to wash their
prejudices to Hades and force a rebuilding based on love and respect.
A couple of positive indicators are there if
we observe and think from a different perspective. Love is not absent from this
terrible place. Passions promoting evil are given free rein, but the love of
particular couples leaves a residue of hope that all the enmity has not
extinguished. The love affair between Adnan and Linah blossoms amid suspicion
and hate while Adnan’s friend Ali is simultaneously dealt a devastating blow.
Tragedy walks, not hand in hand with love, but hovers, awaiting the situation
where it can take away hopes of a better life ahead.
Another very powerful indicator of hope for
the people of Palestine is the balanced telling of the story. The writer is by
no means pro-Jewish. He records the terrible price Israel inflicts on the
Palestinian territories, including the flattening and ‘scorched earth’
destruction of formerly held territory. All around is hatred and niggling
hostility, yet the writing is not maudlin. It reports; the reportage describes
horrible things but uplifts despite that. Morsi’s characters recognize their
weaknesses even if they do nothing to make a bad scene better.
The
streets outside were on fire. Lives were bursting with rage. I felt my own
bitterness mixed with the feelings of having been deceived…The fighting was
bringing out the worst character in ourselves. The diabolical, boorish and
vengeful. The scavenger beast that feeds on the soul-shredding affair between
Us and Them” (265).
Love is not the saviour of the warring sides
in this book. Love is a casualty of human hatred and the desire to inflict
destruction. Logically we should be expecting a book steeped in hatred or
crouching in hurt. That doesn’t happen. The author is better than that. The Palace of Angels is a shattering
book. Prepare to be captivated.
It’s been an extremely busy and eventful last six months. Those who know me are well aware that I spend most of my time away from social media and poke my head up from time to time. This post is not a discussion about the pros and cons but simply an update of what I’ve been up to, especially keeping in mind the forthcoming September release (1st September 2019)of the trilogy of novels: The Palace of Angels – pre-orders are already being shipped out to customers world-wide so make sure you get your copy!
However before I go into the news about The Palace of Angels, which has taken most of my time, I’d like to write a few words about some of the incredible people that have come across my path. In March I visited the Margaret River Public Library and gave a talk titled Living In The Strange. But it was also an opportunity to stay with some very beautiful people who opened up their home to me and Zaki. Thank you Melanie, Simon, Seth and Hugh for having us at your incredible home built to feel as if you’re outside while still being inside! I gave a great talk at The Margaret River High School in conjunction with a talk at the Margaret River Library in the centre of town. I’ve also been giving talks at libraries around Perth and was also on my way to Karratha when flights jumped to almost a thousand dollars return overnight, breaking every budget in the book. We’re hoping to get that happening though, very soon! I was also at Lesmurdie Library where so many fantastic people turned up and there are talks scheduled for Nedlands and Rockingham libraries, so keep your eyes on the upcoming section!
The cover of The Palace of Angels is smashing, thank you Debra Billson and the fantastic Palestinian/Israeli artists that have contributed to the cover. The book has been so well received with praise from near and far. In Australia, Randa Abdel-Fattah wrote recently:
“I did not think my heart could both break and soar any more over my father’s homeland. I did not think I had more tears or laughter. And yet Mohammed Massoud Morsi’s The Palace of Angels took me by surprise. It moved me deeply, reminding me of the power of story-telling to reveal how living under occupation packages the absurd and the tragic, despair and compassion, into individual and collective lives. Morsi is a tremendous story-teller who pulls off this ambitious, big work because he pays attention to the details, treating his characters with tenderness even at the moments when the reader thinks they least deserve it. This is a book to be read and re-read.”
In the coming weeks, the Wild Dingo Press team and myself will be creating as big a buzz around The Palace of Angels as possible, posting reviews from authors and media, and also announcing who will be launching the book in Perth and possible on the east coast later on this year!
Today the first copies of The Palace Of Angels arrived!
Books are going out this week and paperbacks are available through livinginthestrange, online retailers and selected stores.
The Palace Of Angels
Synopsis:
“Angels bring us our hearts. And when a heart meets a heart, the eye sees no flaw…”
Palestine 2014, once again on the brink of war: Adnan is desperate to find his way out of the pre-dawn existence in the checkpoint queue. In the midst of a volatile turn of events, his eyes catch a shining soul through the yellow-lit darkness of the night. Her red nails match the blood that suddenly awakens his heart. As their life story would have it, she is an Israeli soldier. From that day, Adnan comes to realise his destiny is not written in stone and that he has choices to make. At the same time, his lifelong friend Ali is thrown the cruellest of fates and embarks down the long dark road of revenge. In the ensuing months, Adnan follows a number of terrifying paths and eventually chooses life.
The Palace of Angels has been released and is available for pre-order as a paperback from Living In The Strange.It’s available as an eBook already and will soon hit stores and online retailers.
