In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story

by Ghada Karmi

Overview

"One of the finest, most eloquent and painfully honest memoirs of the Palestinian exile and displacement."
–New Statesman

An intimate memoir of the 1948 Nakba, exile and the dispossession of Palestinian lands

In Search of Fatima reflects the author’s personal experiences of displacement and loss against a backdrop of the major political events which have shaped conflict in the Middle East. Kharmi was born in Jerusalem but her family were forced out in 1948, following the Nakba, when Palestinians were dispossessed of their lands at the hands of the Israeli state.

In this moving account of exile, she charts her family's displacement to Jordan, and finally to Golders Green, London, where she initially refused to lay down roots in alien soil. Through this journey, Kharmi charts the personal account of a young woman's search for identity: as a Palestinian far away from home.

Speaking for the millions of displaced people worldwide who have lived suspended between their old and new countries, fitting into neither, this is a nuanced exploration of psychological displacement and loss of identity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781804297094
Publisher:	Verso Books
Publication date:	04/09/2024
Pages:	480
Product dimensions:	5.08(w) x 7.80(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Ghada Karmi was born in Jerusalem and trained as a doctor of medicine at Bristol University. She established the first British-Palestinian medical charity in 1972 and was an Associate Fellow at the Royal Institute for International Affairs. Her previous books include The Ethnic Health Factfile and Jerusalem Today: What Future for the Peace Process? and, as co-editor with E. Cotran, The Palestinian Exodus, 1948–1998.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Author's Note
Introduction
 
Prologue
Part One PALESTINE
Pan Two ENGLAND
Part Three IN SEARCH OF FATIMA


Epilogue

Editorial Reviews

This is an important memoir, beautifully written by an intelligent, sensitive woman ... It should help those of us who do not understand why growing numbers of Muslims and not a few Christians have lost faith with Western pretensions of fairness.”—Financial Times

“Keenly observed, fierce, honest and yet light of touch.”—Economist

“Karmi’s great achievement is to humanise the Palestinian predicament. Violent uprooting and exile have permanent psychological effects, which, as the Jewish people discovered, are not necessarily assuaged by the passage of time. We need counter-narratives like this, because we have recently learnt that it is not only parochial but also dangerous to ignore the pain and rights of others.”—Independent

“A very timely book in the current political situation ... This should serve to remind people just what the big fuss in the Middle East is all about.”—Ahdaf Soueif, Times Literary Supplement

“Ghada Karmi writes simply and poignantly. Here is a story of our time, exile and dispossession.”—Jewish Chronicle

“One of the finest, most eloquent and painfully honest memoirs of the Palestinian exile and displacement, which western power and its creature, Israel, have normalised.”—New Statesman

“Compelling and beautifully written.”—Independent

From the Publisher

Her memoir is the story of a fascinating woman...humanly rich and interesting.

Edward Said

Karmi, a doctor and founding member of the British political group Palestine Action, relates her quest for cultural identity after her "fragile... and misfit Arab family" leaves Jerusalem for England during the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. Ironically, they resettle in a Jewish neighborhood in London; Karmi, aged nine, quickly begins to assimilate-becoming an avid reader of English literature and befriending Jewish neighbors-despite her mother's insistence on traditional Palestinian culinary customs, dating mores and family codes. Over the next two decades, events in the Middle East make their non-Arab neighbors increasingly hostile and her Jewish friends' pro-Israel fervor grows; after the Palestinian terrorist hijackings of the 1970s, some acquaintances refuse to speak to her. Karmi becomes an impassioned pro-Palestinian activist, and in 1977 she begins practicing medicine in a Palestinian refugee camp in South Lebanon-and finds that her Western upbringing and habits make her even less welcome there than she was in England. Karmi writes engagingly, weaving Palestinian political and social history through her personal recollections and giving the age-old migr dilemmas a timely twist. Though her account is inevitably one-sided regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the book's straightforward tone may appeal to politically minded readers looking for insight into the Palestinian exile experience. 20 b&w photos, 3 maps. (Oct. 24) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

A very timely book in the current political situation… This should serve to remind people just what the big fuss in the Middle East is all about.

Ahdaf Soueif - Times Literary Supplement

Ghada Karmi writes simply and poignantly. Here is a story of our time, exile and dispossession.

Jewish Chronicle

This is an important memoir, beautifully written by an intelligent, sensitive woman ... It should help those of us who do not understand why growing numbers of Muslims and not a few Christians have lost faith with Western pretensions of fairness.

Financial Times

One of the finest, most eloquent and painfully honest memoirs of the Palestinian exile and displacement, which western power and its creature, Israel, have normalised.

New Statesman

Compelling and beautifully written.

Independent

Keenly observed, fierce, honest and yet light of touch.

Economist