Minor Detail

De: Adania Shibli, Elisabeth Jaquette - translator

Narrado por: Siiri Scott

A searing, beautiful novel meditating on war, violence, memory, and the sufferings of the Palestinian people

Minor Detail begins during the summer of 1949, one year after the war that the Palestinians mourn as the Nakba - the catastrophe that led to the displacement and exile of some 700,000 people - and the Israelis celebrate as the War of Independence. Israeli soldiers murder an encampment of Bedouin in the Negev desert, and among their victims, they capture a Palestinian teenager, and they rape her, kill her, and bury her in the sand.

Many years later, in the near-present day, a young woman in Ramallah tries to uncover some of the details surrounding this particular rape and murder, and becomes fascinated to the point of obsession, not only because of the nature of the crime, but because it was committed exactly 25 years to the day before she was born. Adania Shibli masterfully overlays these two translucent narratives of exactly the same length to evoke a present forever haunted by the past.

Contains mature themes.

©2016 Adania Shibli; English translation copyright 2020 by Elisabeth Jaquette (P)2021 Tantor

Heart breaking

This is such a terrible reality for so many. That ending will stay with me for a long time.

Absolutely necessary and absolutely heartbreaking

This is a beautiful piece of writing. The story broke my heart, but also opened my eyes to how the authors people have been living under occupation all of these years.

Adania has earned her award and deserves to receive it.

Free Palestine.

The details of life in Palestine. it's like the hunger games. how can the world not see what is in front of the

truly an eye opener to the extent of life for the past 100 years in occupied Palestine. I am truly sorry the world has turned a blind eye to the people of Palestine

🇵🇸

Difficult read but such an important and impactful book. I'll be thinking about this for a while. FREE PALESTINE.

Verbally yelled “ WHAT” at the end.

This story will stay with me for the rest of my life. Please read and share with those around you.

still a story for our times, sadly

As heartbreaking as I expected, it's precisely written. As important today as it ever was.

powerful

this book offers great insight into a history and a current reality. so necessary, thank you for the writing and the narration! truly powerful.

Sad story

I’m grateful to have found this story. I wish it was all fiction but sadly this is happening in real life. My prayers are with the people of Palestine

Wow. There are no words.

Fascinating and thoughtful read. Insightful to the Palestinian struggle. I would recommend it to a friend.

This book is beautifully haunting.

This book irritated me. The characters have no names. The second protagonist is like the guy in a horror film who suggests everyone should split up. I am internally screaming at this woman to preserve herself and act in her own self interest, which, it seems, she cannot do.

However, I must ask myself, am I reading a story about the experience of being Palestinian in occupied Gaza because I want to feel comfortable, because I want a happy ending? Or do I want to read about this part of the world from the perspective of a disempowered person because I want to benefit from the wisdom and perspective that is offered here? What other purpose can there be? At the end of the day, if the book is maddeningly irritating because the protagonist is adrift in a sea of dangerous, changing, porous political, social, and physical mores; if she's a nameless, voiceless, powerless human being whose story cannot be told except through the miracle of narrative fiction, then it is not the book that grates against my sense of justice and normalcy-- it is the situation as it exists for those making a life in places and times where their existence is illegal.

So it is with vivid imagery and adept, objective description that the author brings the experiences of the characters to life and paints a picture of occupation, war, and atrocity as the simple daily vicissitudes of life in Gaza. The dissonance is beautifully jarring. This is not a comfortable, entertaining book that leaves one feeling good. This is a brutal, drum beat of a novel that challenges the average western reader.