Adania Shibli is the queen of stark but poignant and powerful prose. I’d feel pretentious if I tried to say more than necessary.
Having read Minor Detail already, I downloaded these books in response to her unjustly cancelled award ceremony at the Frankfurt Book Fair that was supposed to take place on October 20, 2023. Shibli’s first two works are described as non-political. I disagree. But maybe they are, if one compares them to Minor Detail, her most famous work, which exposes the rape and murder of a Palestinian girl by Israeli soldiers.
In these two books there is no talk of occupation or governments, most characters do not have names, locations are vague, they recount ordinary lives; but I don’t think it takes a genius to notice that the dismal lives depicted in these earlier works are consequences of systemic trauma and oppression.
For books such as these, it is not the reader’s duty to offer literary analysis, or to say whether they liked it or not. It is the reader’s duty to empathize. Because today, even empathy is hard to come by.
The Book-Butterfly 
So I’d never heard of her so I googled, and went down the rabbit hole reading about her literary prize being cancelled etc. Pretty sad to cancel someone’s story like that. Where is the empathy indeed!!!
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I highly recommend Minor Detail! So uniquely and powerfully written! Fitzcarraldo Editions gave free access to the eBook for the entirety of Frankfurt Book Fair in response to what happened. I should have alerted you! Kicking myself for not having thought about it sooner.
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All good Mira, thanks for the thought! I must admit that I really dont like eBooks – my life is spent on a screen so much anyway that the thought of reading on it, even if free, doesnt appeal. I would rather spend the money and buy the physical! Im also hoping my collection is something my daughter will enjoy in the future as well. Xxx
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