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klaartjesmits's reviews
195 reviews
They Fell Like Stars From the Sky & Other Stories by Sheikha Helawy
5.0
In this short story collection Sheikha Helawy gives a glimpse into the life of Bedouin Palestinian women and girls of different ages. Each story is accompanied by an illustration by Anna Morrison.
While most of the stories are only a few pages long each of them gives a strong message or a clear slice of life of a Bedouin Palestinian woman or girl. There are stories about growing up, cultural traditions, the relation to the body, sexism and misogyny, death of loved ones, family dynamics (mostly with mothers and grandmothers) and more. I love that some very specific situations are used to portray these themes, like one particularly memorable tale about a girl's complex bond with her grandmother who is infatuated by the famous Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum. Athough the focus isn't on the Israeli occupation itself, it's still very clear that the girls' and women's experiences are strongly influenced by living in Bedouin Palestinian villages which are often 'unrecognised' and forcefully displaced by the Israeli occupation - as was the village of Dhail El E'rj where Helawy grew up.
Helawy writes from a strong feminist standpoint by showing varied female experiences with great nuance and by critiquing different facets of sexism and misogyny - like body shaming and slut-shaming - in a powerful, direct way. She has a beautiful writing style and packs a lot of meaning in few words, making me read many sentences over and over and reflecting on them for a long time after reading. I also love that some of the Bedouin dialect Helawy incorporated into the stories is kept in the translation and is very helpfully explained in the footnotes by Nancy Roberts, the translator. As with all translated works some things will be lost, but to me it seems a lot can still be grasped - both of the meaning and the writing style.
I'm very interested to see more of Helawy's works when they're hopefully being translated as well!
Thank you to the author, to Neem Tree Press and to BookSirens for the free eARC.
Content warnings: animal death (off-page), blood, body shaming, colonisation, dead bodies, death, death of a loved one (off-page), deportation, disappearance, domestic violence, genocide, grief depiction, homophobic slur, houselesness, misogyny, physical injury, pregnancy (mentioned), racial slur (anti-Roma), refugee experience, sexism, sex work (mentioned), unconsensual hair cutting
While most of the stories are only a few pages long each of them gives a strong message or a clear slice of life of a Bedouin Palestinian woman or girl. There are stories about growing up, cultural traditions, the relation to the body, sexism and misogyny, death of loved ones, family dynamics (mostly with mothers and grandmothers) and more. I love that some very specific situations are used to portray these themes, like one particularly memorable tale about a girl's complex bond with her grandmother who is infatuated by the famous Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum. Athough the focus isn't on the Israeli occupation itself, it's still very clear that the girls' and women's experiences are strongly influenced by living in Bedouin Palestinian villages which are often 'unrecognised' and forcefully displaced by the Israeli occupation - as was the village of Dhail El E'rj where Helawy grew up.
Helawy writes from a strong feminist standpoint by showing varied female experiences with great nuance and by critiquing different facets of sexism and misogyny - like body shaming and slut-shaming - in a powerful, direct way. She has a beautiful writing style and packs a lot of meaning in few words, making me read many sentences over and over and reflecting on them for a long time after reading. I also love that some of the Bedouin dialect Helawy incorporated into the stories is kept in the translation and is very helpfully explained in the footnotes by Nancy Roberts, the translator. As with all translated works some things will be lost, but to me it seems a lot can still be grasped - both of the meaning and the writing style.
I'm very interested to see more of Helawy's works when they're hopefully being translated as well!
Thank you to the author, to Neem Tree Press and to BookSirens for the free eARC.
Content warnings: animal death (off-page), blood, body shaming, colonisation, dead bodies, death, death of a loved one (off-page), deportation, disappearance, domestic violence, genocide, grief depiction, homophobic slur, houselesness, misogyny, physical injury, pregnancy (mentioned), racial slur (anti-Roma), refugee experience, sexism, sex work (mentioned), unconsensual hair cutting
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Deportation, Colonisation, Death, Genocide, Grief, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Body shaming, Animal death, Kidnapping, and Sexism
Minor: Racial slurs, Pregnancy, and Homophobia