Mornings in Jenin - by Susan Abulhawa

Wow. Just wow. I am in recovery. I have a Susan Abulhawa hangover and am in withdrawal. I don't think there are words sufficient enough to describe this book. To call it a story would be an injustice. It is a work of art. I am having immense trouble bringing myself back to reality and shaking off the life I have lived this past day and a half. I cannot remember the last time I read a book all day and all night. Cannot remember when I last fell asleep reading, dreamt of the story and its characters, and opened the book as soon as I opened my eyes again. 

Originally "The Scar of David", Mornings in Jenin tells the story of the Abulheja family, who are forced to flee their home in Ein Hod. The family finds home in a refugee camp in Jenin during the Israeli formation and occupation of Palestine in 1948. We are thrown into their world and come to know each character as if they were our own friends and family. Through four generations of the Abulheja family, we learn of love gained and lost, of suffering and healing, and of belonging, peace, and freedom.

The story is told by Amal, a third generation Abulheja, and wonderfully inspirational character. Amal shows us strength and weakness in one breath. From the first to the final mention of her name, she is somebody to admire. Amal's integrity in unimaginable and wholly uplifting. Through Amal we learn of her family and their plight, their journeys and struggles, and their hopes and dreams. 

I loved each character. I connected with every one of them on a different level, in a different way. It would be a betrayal to the characters to attempt to explain them. However, my favourite character in this journey is Huda: Amal's quiet yet passionate best friend. She silently and delicately exudes comfort and confidence. Her unconditional love is, I believe, one of the greatest lessons to be taken from this novel. 

Abulhawa masterfully paints the picture of the magnitude of the effects of Israeli occupation on Palestine and its people. She does it so well that we are unaware we are reading words on a page, as we are transported into the depths of hell with her characters. We feel the groping hands, the cold barrel of the rifle. We hear the bulldozers and can feel ourselves choke on the dust from rubble. We feel ourselves swelter under the heat of the Palestinian sun, feel ourselves shrink into the lowest parts of the house as we hide away with our loves ones.

This is by no means a one-sided account of a conflict not many people know enough about. Abulhawa does not de-humanise the Israelis, nor lessen the impact of the war upon them too. We learn that in war there are two sides to every story, and that not all mass media and journalism can be wholeheartedly trusted. This book is real, the struggles are real, and the emotions are real. 

Abulhawa has given us a lesson we will not forget. She has taken us on the journey of a lifetime. Her words are so raw, her emotions so intense that we feel everything with her. I was enlightened and devastated in the same breath, I laughed and I cried in the same sentence, and I was angered and calmed with the same words.

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Genre: Fiction

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Date of publication: 7th February 2011

Pages: 352

My rating: 5 out of 5

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