Sabra Zoo

by Mischa Hiller

Overview

Winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book for Europe and South Asia.

"A stunning, defiant debut."—Guardian

"Hiller brings to his works not only a craftsman's skill but also a compassion for his characters that proves infectious."—Haaretz

"A chilling rites-of-passage novel set in Beirut in 1982 during the killings in the camps."—The Economist

It is the summer of 1982 and Beirut is under siege. Eighteen-year-old Ivan's parents have just been evacuated from the city with other members of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Ivan stays on, interpreting for international medical volunteers in Sabra refugee camp and working undercover for the PLO. Hoping to get closer to Eli, a Norwegian physiotherapist, he helps her treat Youssef, a camp orphan disabled by a cluster bomb. An unexpected friendship develops between the three and things begin to look up.

But events take a nasty turn when the president-elect is assassinated. The Israeli army enters Beirut and surrounds the camp, with Eli and Youssef trapped inside. What happens next makes international headlines and leaves Ivan scrabbling to salvage something positive from the chaos.

Mischa Hiller, of English–Palestinian descent, was born in England in 1962 and grew up in London, Dar es Salaam, and Beirut. Mischa won the 2009 European Independent Film Festival script competition for his adaptation of Sabra Zoo. He lives with his family in Cambridge, England.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781846591020
Publisher:	Telegram Books
Publication date:	10/10/2011
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	231
File size:	315 KB
Age Range:	12 Years

About the Author

Mischa Hiller, of English-Palestinian descent, was born in England in 1962 and grew up in London, Dar es Salaam and Beirut. Sabra Zoo won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book in the Europe and South Asia category in 2011. Mischa also won the 2009 European Independent Film Festival script competition for his adaptation of the book. His second novel, Shake Off, was published to critical acclaim in the UK in 2011. He lives with his family in Cambridge.
www.mischahiller.com
Mischa Hiller is a talented new voice. He was born in 1962 and grew up in Durham, London, Beirut and Dar El-Salaam. Mischa won the 2009 European Independent Film Festival script competition for his adaptation of Sabra Zoo. He lives in Cambridge. For more information please visit www.sabrazoo.com.

Editorial Reviews

In 1982, seven years after the start of the Lebanese Civil War, Beirut was invaded by Israeli forces intent on expelling the PLO. In September, Sabra (one of two refugee camps) was the site of a massacre when Israelis allowed Phalangists to enter the camp. Hiller's impressive debut is a fictionalized account of the moments leading up to and including this event, as well as its aftermath. Briskly narrated by 18-year-old Ivan, a translator whose work with international medical volunteers is complicated by his courier duties with the PLO, the novel assiduously follows friends and lovers as they attempt to establish routines during tense days. With sobering realism, Hiller reveals how war can become an abstraction for those accustomed to bombings and threats, even as it remains a destabilizing presence. Such hair-trigger tension between maintaining business as usual and watching over his shoulder gradually wears on Ivan, who must decide between staying or leaving. Despite a few graphic descriptions of mutilation, Hiller eschews a sense of voyeurism, and concludes the novel in the realm of the humane. Sabra Zoo is a welcome addition to the literature of witness, capturing youth at an unthinkable crossroads.
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