A review by ramonaleanna
In the Presence of Absence by Mahmoud Darwish

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

Absolutely beautiful prose, or poetry? A piece of work that is un-categorizable! 

It was dense, despite not being long, and something I ideally will pick up many more times. I re-read several passages and am sure I missed many references and instances of wordplay, not to mention it’s a translated text. This is a read that 100% requires mulling over. I was not aware of self-elegy as a genre in Arabic literature but it’s something I am excited to explore more.