Fady Joudah

Mahmoud could have been our son.I’d have objected to the nameand, for family reasons, you’d have insisted on it.We could have bought him a crib with a blue quiltand hung spinning musical animalsto coax him to sleep,could have stayed up all night for his first ...

I’ll write about a joy that invades Jenin from six directions,about children running while holding balloons in Am’ari Camp, about a fullness that quiets breastfeeding babies all night in Askar, about a little sea we can stroll up and down in Tulkarem,about eyes that stare ...

He closes the door, turns off the lightsexcept the hallway’s which leads to the fenceand lets him peek at the bougainvillea and the branches of the sweet apple he planted last winter.  Inside his room one candleby the window will do. A smokey candle and its ...

My enemies defeated me, led me downhill,executed my horse, and made me watch.My enemies defeated me, sold my mats, rugs,and colored rosaries at the bazaarto merchants and traders in shadows.In the dark my friends betrayed me.My children saw the hyena laugh outside our window.At ...

heeds no council, offers no rawsolutions, is part and parcel of actionsthat were not taken. Finding out who the killer isis not the point of the murderin the opening scene. For the third time my handsalter the female protagonistbefore the novel even begins. In her ...

We had a cow, Obeidah the cow. She had big wide eyesbut the whole herd had big wide eyes. She was dappledbut the rest of them were dappled. She had two large uddersthat daily gave two or three buckets of milkbut every other cow in the herd had full uddersmy mom milked ...

When separate from you my blood will ache.An unknown part of me will acheand I’ll try to kill it. Or grab it.The cell that misses you will throb in me,and I won’t be able to spot it,it changes position often,drags out the game,hurts my senses.My eyesight will worsen,my ...

My mother is three years younger than Nakba.But she doesn’t believe in great powers.Twice a day she brings God down from his thronethen reconciles with himthrough the mediation of the bestrecorded Quranic recitations.And she can’t bear meek women.She never once mentioned ...