Telegram: Qissat: Reviews

'We could hardly need them more urgently than we do now... In a world with porous frontiers, literature can help outsiders register the depth and dignity of other lives.'
Boyd Tonkin, The Independent, July 2006

'Sixteen authors have contributed to Qissat: Short Stories by Palestinian Women. Most of their concerns are very much those of a people under siege: refugee camps and border crossings; the fear of checkpoints; the terror of gunfire. But there are intimate, domestic stories too: of sweet, strong araq and bittersweet love; filial duty and the potent forces of nostalgia ... A humane, richly rewarding read ... no two women share the same perspective, but the kaleidoscope effect of so many visions serves to illuminate rather than blur.'
Vogue, October 2006 Issue

'Glanville notes that in the past few years there has been an increasing appetite for Palestinian memoirs. While such memoirs are powerful testimonies, "there is also a danger that so long as the world outside limits its interests to factual accounts, then Palestinians will only ever be viewed in terms on the conflict, while culture, the wider society, remains unseen" Her collection certainly succeeds in fulfilling the aim of "the chance to engage with a broader perspective - through the literary imagination".'
Susannah Tarbush, Institute for Middle East Understanding, October 2006

'A variety of styles and voices ... raw and honest ... Themes of domesticity, burgeoning sexuality and the experience of being a woman in Arab society are dealt with ... lyrical and beautifully written, they give us a different perspective on life in Palestine.' Sunday Times

'Many layered, haunting, sensuously rich and often threatening to the status quo ... subversion and fragmentation, exile and return, echo through ... Such moments show more than a thousand news broadcasts.' The Times

'The writing feels precious, but also main-stream and relevant.' Scotland on Sunday

'In turn lyrical, sensuous, comic and ironic ... valuable ammunition against the impoverished imagination of political discourse ... it is the quality of subtle, evocative writing here that makes [Qissat] remarkable.' Independent

'What is exceptional, given the backdrop of nakba – the catastrophe – that remains a defining feature of all the submissions included in the book is the range, diversity and humour inherent in these stories. Qissat goes a long way towards dispelling the notion of the Palestinian experience as being synonymous with the image of the helpless victim ... Alongside the war and disruption we are treated to tales of growing up, loss of innocence and the pleasures and pains of falling in and out of love. For readers in English this is a revelation.' Al-Ahram Weekly

'An anthology that explores the many facets of life and identity as a Palestinian woman ... An insight into the women of a society is an insight into its emotional core, beneath the larger conflicts and politics and into the center of family life. Editor Jo Glanville has constructed the anthology with the conscious objective of combining the work of established writers with the young, emerging female voices, and the result introduces us to some of the many complex and hidden realities of life as a Palestinian woman.'
Francesca Segal, Jewish Quarterly