A review by bobbo49
Gate of the Sun: Bab Al-Shams by Elias Khoury

4.0

A somewhat difficult read, both in its format and its content - but nonetheless, an intensely compelling and intimate portrait of the trials and tears of Palestine in the years after 1948 to the early 2000s. Although like most students of history I knew the basic outlines of the story, Khoury's telling is from the perspective of a young Palestinian freedom fighter recounting his life, and the lives of his family and friends and lovers, as he sits by the bed of his comatose mentor, searching for meaning and perspective and understanding of their lives in exile and combat and terror and fear and hope. How we - and the United States and Israel in particular - can continue to abide the treatment of the Palestinian people and treat the horrors of their lives as a political negotiation is simply beyond my understanding.