Reviews

Palestine +100 by Basma Ghalayini

emalderwood's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

jpraska006's review against another edition

5.0

Palestine +100 is a wonderful collection of short sci-fi stories from Palestinian authors. Each writer, asked to imagine their country 100 years after the 1948 Nakba, weaves a unique tale through a diverse array of sub-genres that reflect the traumas, struggles, hopes and joys of their people. The stories, “Song of the Birds,” and “The Key,” particularly stick out to me, but really every story has something special to offer. Great book.

hannahcg's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad fast-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

veroperovero's review against another edition

5.0

This wasn't always easy to read, but that made it so much more powerful. Library collections need more perspectives and I'm glad that we can now add Palestinian voices to science fiction anthologies. If you enjoy science fiction as an escape, this isn't the book for you. The writers in this collection use speculative fiction as reflection on current circumstances/issues.

sunflowersandpomegranates's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

An insightful and brilliant collection of stories. The variety and depth of these pieces are incredible and although I am not usually a sci-fi fan these felt so much more than the genre assigned to them. 

Stand outs were definitely ‘The Key’ and ‘Vengeance’. Mandatory reading - especially in current times. 

pink_distro's review against another edition

4.0

such an amazing collection.... cant wait to read more Palestinian sci-fi after this. "The Curse of the Mud Ball Kid" and "The Key" explore the paranoia / fear that pervades settler societies, "N" and "Song of the Birds," deal with kind of multiple realities, and how Palestinians struggle through evolving forms of dimensional-mental-political oppression.

"Sleep it Off Dr. Schott," "Vengeance," and "Commonplace" all have very interesting characters and relationships and are general favs. "Personal Hero" was also a favorite, it has maybe the wildest premise of all these stories ... its makes me think about how we can develop different relationships with the past in movement, and how Palestinians have done that so powerfully ...

spicedragon's review against another edition

4.0

5/5

A collection of translated SFF short stories that take place 100 years after the Nakba. I don't have much to say other than each story sits with you long after you've read it, the way the author's reflect on israeli colonization/apartheid and how they incorporate instances of Palestinian resistance in a future full of alternate virtual realities is so!!

genteale's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

inky_cap's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

An amazing series of short stories by Palestinian authors, each one equally as thought provoking as well as heartbreaking. 

ceallaighsbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

“We’re only aware of the very end of its tail but its smooth slippery body stretches under our clothes and its head bites our children with poisonous memories, with images we spent a war and a lifetime trying to bury. I've done all I can to get away from the war, from the sediment it left inside me, but it keeps resurfacing. Not even our children's innocence can wash it away. N's innocence—even if it brings back memories of your voice, the warmth of your hands and your opinions on Herman Hesse—can't overcome the taste of gunpowder dust in my throat, dust transmitted from the throat of one generation to the next.” — from “N” by Majd Kayyal, translated by Thoraya El-Rayyes

TITLE—PαlesᎿᎥne +100: Stories from a Century After the Nακbα

AUTHOR—Basma Ghalayini

PUBLISHED—2019

PUBLISHER—Comma Press

GENRE—speculative fiction & literary sci-fi short stories

SETTING—PαlesᎿᎥne, 2048 CE

MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—RᎥghᎿ οf ᎡeᎿυrη, Free PαlesᎿᎥne, PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαn culture & history, digital occupation & the technology of oppression, intergenerational & inherited trauma, active vs passive complicity, hope as resistance & vice-versa, No justice—No peace, ghosts, dreams, AI & VR as facilitators of better-realities imagination & digital revolution

“Four generations on, any PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαn child can tell you all about their great-grandfather's back garden in Haifa, Yaffa or Majdal. They can tell you about their great-grandmother's kitchen, the patterns on her plates, and the colours of the embroidery on her pillows. They can tell you about their great-grandparents' neighbours, the musky smell of the local shop and all the handmade goods it sold. This child has never been to any of those places, of course, but so long as they keep the memory of them alive, then, should they ever get to go back, it would be as if they had never left; they could pick up exactly where their great-grandparents left off. Indeed, wherever PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαn refugees are in the world, one thing unites them: their undoubted belief in their right to return.” — from the INTRODUCTION by Basma Ghalayini

Summary:

“PαlesᎿᎥne + 100 poses a question to twelve PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαn writers: what might your country look like in the year 2048–a century after the tragedies and trauma of what has come to be called the Nακbα?… Covering a range of approaches—from SF noir, to nightmarish dystopia, to high-tech farce—these stories use the blank canvas of the future to reimagine the PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαn experience today.” — from the back cover

“…even the most extraordinary future technology can do little more than mirror or reframe the current, real-world impasse. But that's what science fiction does; it uses the future as a blank canvas on which to project concerns that occupy society right now. The real future—the actual future—is unknowable. But for SF writers, the mere idea of 'things to come' is licence to re-imagine, re-configure, and re-interrogate the present.” — from the INTRODUCTION by Basma Ghalayini

My thoughts:

I don’t usually gel well with most sci-fi but these stories leaned more towards the literary and spec fic side of the genre. What I especially loved about them—which is also why I still come back to sci-fi again and again despite my difficulties with it—is how profoundly philosophical each story was and how expressive the perspectives and experiences of all of the characters were. The complexities and vulnerabilities of each character were all expertly rendered—being familiar and resonant without being stereotypical or one-dimensional.

I think the most powerful thing for me about this collection was the constant subversion and renewal of a lot of different concepts and language that I’ve encountered before in many different scenarios, but, in the contexts of these stories specifically, these simple lines and phrases take on a meaning even more poignant and devastating than usual. I’m thinking specifically of many lines from “SONG OF THE BIRDS”, but especially: “‘…but the stones are too heavy’” and “If the whole thing was just a dream, it felt more real than life,” as well as “Even now it seems crazy, but people can get used to anything,” from “N”, “'It's time to come home’” from “DIGITAL NATION”, and “…no one has the right to forget the past” from “THE ASSOCIATION.” You’ll have to read the collection yourself to find out what exactly I mean by that (bc no spoilers here 😅) but once you do I’m sure you’ll find it as moving as I did.

There wasn’t a weak one among them but my especial favorite stories were: “N” by Majd Kayyal, translated by Thoraya El-Rayyes, “THE KEY” by Anwar Hamed, translated by Andrew Leber, “DIGITAL NATION” by Emad EI-Din Aysha, and “THE CURSE OF THE MUD BALL KID” by Mazen Maarouf, translated by Jonathan Wright. This last story was the most speculative and strange of the stories, I thought, and even reminded me a little bit of Helen Oyeyemi’s (my all-time fave) or Kristín Ómarsdóttir’s writing.

I would recommend this book to readers who love their sci-fi with some literary and philosophical weight. This book is best read alongside LIGHT IN GAZA—many of these stories pair really well with the essays in that collection.

Final note: I am now officially addicted to PαlesᎿᎥnᎥαn writers.

“Those who keep resisting are seen as insane by those who cannot see the prison walls… What is it that is driving her actions, she wonders? Is it a cynicism borne out of loss and betrayal, a cynicism so deep it courses in her veins? Or is it something else—a yearning to be free that exists like an itchiness under her skin?” — from SONG OF THE BIRDS by Saleem Haddad

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

CW // genocide, state-sanctioned & settler-colonial violence, martyrdom, sexual content, some ableist language (Please feel free to DM me for more specifics!)

Season: Spring

Further Reading—

• LIGHT IN GΛΖΛ edited by Jehad Abusalim; especially “Gαzα 2050: Three Scenarios” by Basman Aldirawi
• TAAQTUMI edited by Neil Christopher
• NEVER WHISTLE AT NIGHT edited by Shane Hawk & Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.
• HOW LONG TIL BLACK FUTURE MONTH by NK Jemisin
• “Vituperator” by Helen Oyeyemi in FURIES: STORIES OF THE WICKED, WILD AND UNTAMED (Virago, 2023)
• SWANFOLK by Kristín Ómarsdóttir
• THE LESSON by Cadwell Turnbull