Arriving on a torrent of critical acclaim, including a glowing recommendation from Zadie Smith, Isabella Hammad’s debut is an ambitious and superbly realised historical epic. Part love story, part social drama it moves from Palestine to Montpellier and Paris during a turbulent period from the end of the Ottoman Empire to the outbreak of the Second World War. Beautifully – tenderly – written, it’s a story that sings in its depiction of real lives caught up in history’s undertow.
As the First World War shatters families, destroys friendships and kills lovers, a young Palestinian dreamer sets out to find himself.
Midhat Kamal picks his way across a fractured world, from the shifting politics of the Middle East to the dinner tables of Montpellier and a newly tumultuous Paris. He discovers that everything is fragile: love turns to loss, friends become enemies and everyone is looking for a place to belong. Isabella Hammad delicately unpicks the tangled politics and personal tragedies of a turbulent era - the Palestinian struggle for independence, the strife of the early twentieth century and the looming shadow of the Second World War.
An intensely human story amidst a global conflict, The Parisian is historical fiction with a remarkable contemporary voice.
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
ISBN: 9781911214427
Number of pages: 576
Weight: 835 g
Dimensions: 240 x 162 x 49 mm
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