seeceeread 's review for:

Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad

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He's saying it's a choice between life and death. But really, what Mariam is pointing out, there's a third way: you can be a ghost. [...] We haunt them. They want to kill us, but we will not die.

Sonia's on holiday, running from exes and heartbreaks in London as much as from a career that's slowing down. After a few nervous days schlepping to the beach and trying to figure out if Haifa residents can tell that she's Arab, she trips slow motion into a new play, an adaptation of Hamlet to be staged in the West Bank. As she reads for characters, agrees to a part, and learns blocking, she also navigates checkpoints, other people's memories of the intifadas, her youthful recollections of hunger striker, and questions about her family's role in resistance.

Spied on, accidentally wrapped in political intrigue, raided by Israeli soldiers and cosplaying as Muslim to solidarity protest at Al-Aqsa

, she ebbs "inside," building a sense of self (or at least a convincing presence) among Palestinians as she has never felt.

I didn't want to stop reading. Sonia's off-kilter self-reflection and delicate narrative arc captured me. I was hungry for every glimpse of Haneen, every teasing waffle of Wael's, as he teetered on the edge of sexy and self-assured, every jump back in time that deepened the present tension. 

If I read this again (seems like it could be great), it will be a physical copy, and I should annotate thoroughly: every reference to mothering (and miscarriage / abortion), all the little switches in languages and accent, ghosts and haunting, Shakespearean analysis, botched memories, light vs dark ...