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A review by zamziva
Palestine +100: Stories from a Century after the Nakba by Basma Ghalayini
5.0
A beautiful and brutal collection of sci-fi short stories by Palestinian writers imagining palestin 100 years after the Nakba. I kept being reminded that 2048 is only 24 years away. And the truth behind so many of these stories is that the dystopia they invent are not far from the truth.
My favourites of the collection were:
Song of the Birds by Saleem Haddad
(Is a simulated reality a better option than one in which you struggle against your oppressors?)
Sleep It Off, Dr Schott by Selma Dabbagh (explores surveillance within occupied Palestine in a complex and intimate way. Did not care for Dr Schott at all though haha)
N by Majd Kayyal (there's an inertia, an underlying sense of grief and distance, a hollow feeling to this story and yet there are glimmers of hope. Reckoning with what peace actually means and what is compromised in the process)
Application 39 by Ahmed Masoud (feels a bit kooky and playful in the beginning but grounds to a visceral and urgent tone at the end - marvellous)
The Association by Samir El-Yousef (almost Pynchian in its web of conspiracies and mystery - the historian as an insurgent...)
The Curse of the Mud Ball Kid by Mazen Maarouf (a strange, bewildering surreal sci-fi tale - dark and heavy and rebellious - Palestine will live for ever!)
Free Palestine 🇵🇸
My favourites of the collection were:
Song of the Birds by Saleem Haddad
(Is a simulated reality a better option than one in which you struggle against your oppressors?)
Sleep It Off, Dr Schott by Selma Dabbagh (explores surveillance within occupied Palestine in a complex and intimate way. Did not care for Dr Schott at all though haha)
N by Majd Kayyal (there's an inertia, an underlying sense of grief and distance, a hollow feeling to this story and yet there are glimmers of hope. Reckoning with what peace actually means and what is compromised in the process)
Application 39 by Ahmed Masoud (feels a bit kooky and playful in the beginning but grounds to a visceral and urgent tone at the end - marvellous)
The Association by Samir El-Yousef (almost Pynchian in its web of conspiracies and mystery - the historian as an insurgent...)
The Curse of the Mud Ball Kid by Mazen Maarouf (a strange, bewildering surreal sci-fi tale - dark and heavy and rebellious - Palestine will live for ever!)
Free Palestine 🇵🇸