Track Changes

by Sayed Kashua

Overview

An Arab Israeli man, back in Jerusalem to see his estranged father, narrates “a novel about just how sad, fractured and tricky cultural identity can get” (Seattle Times).

Having emigrated to America years before, a nameless memoirist now residing in Illinois receives word that his estranged father, whom he has not spoken to in fourteen years, is dying. Leaving his wife and their three children, he returns to Jerusalem and to his hometown of Tira in Palestine to be by his family’s side. But few are happy to see him back and, geographically and emotionally displaced, he feels more alienated from his life than ever.

Sitting by his father’s hospital bed, the memoirist begins to remember long-buried traumas, the root causes of his fallout with his family, the catalyst for his marriage and its recent dissolution, and his strained relationships with his children—all of which is strangely linked to a short story he published years ago about a young girl named Palestine. As he plunges deeper into his memory and recounts the history of his land and his love, the lines between truth and lies, fact and fiction become increasingly blurred.

Hailed as “an unusually gifted storyteller with exceptional insight” (Jewish Tribune), Bernstein Award–winning writer Sayed Kashua presents a masterful novel about the stories Palestinians and Israelis tell themselves about their lives and their histories.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802147905
Publisher:	Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Publication date:	03/30/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

SAYED KASHUA is the author of the novels Dancing Arabs, Let It Be Morning, which was shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, Second Person Singular, winner of the prestigious Bemstein Prize, and Native. He writes a weekly column for Haaretz and is the creator of the prize-winning sitcom Arab Labor. Now living in the United States with his family, he teaches at the University of Illinois.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Praise for Track Changes

Most Anticipated Books of the First-Half of 2020 by The Millions
"A fierce and intelligent exploration of identity, class, relationship, and truth." —The Millions
“Writing as a venting of frustration … writing as a corrective of a flawed reality … writing as a liberating impulse that inevitably offends some who read it — all are in play in this mournfully shape-shifting novel, deftly translated by Mitch Ginsburg.”—Seattle Times

"Track Changes is a dark read, one that offers a detailed look at a man stretched too thin and the demons that weigh him down. But what Kashua brings to the page is well worth experiencing. The novel’s structure and language bring gut-wrenching beauty and unimagined complexity to a life that may have otherwise seemed stripped of it.—Zyzzyva

“Track Changes, translated by Mitch Ginsburg, packs a quiet, powerful punch on three levels. First, it’s a captivating, quietly sad story. Second, it’s a low key but wrenching exposition of Arab Israeli feelings. Third. it’s a reminder for the Twitter age: Whether or not the pen is mightier than the sword, careless use can destroy lives.”—American Jewish World

Praise for Second Person Singular

“A master of subtle nuance in dealing with both Arab and Jewish society.”—New York Times

“Part comedy of manners, part psychological mystery… Issues of nationalism, religion, and passing collide with quickly changing social and sexual mores.”—Boston Globe

“Kashua keenly dissects issues of identity and class…The themes are universal.”—Los Angeles Times

Praise for Let it be Morning

“Kashua goes beyond the front page headlines and horrific newspaper photos of Middle East violence to show a different view of what being an Arab is all about.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“Sharp, powerful, and uncompromising… one of the most potent and impressive novels written in Hebrew in the last several years.”—Haaretz

“Fascinating… Reading Kashua is a reminder of how little fiction from the Middle East we read and how welcome it would be to see more.”—Washington Times

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Track Changes

Most Anticipated Books of the First-Half of 2020 by The Millions
"A fierce and intelligent exploration of identity, class, relationship, and truth." —The Millions
“Writing as a venting of frustration … writing as a corrective of a flawed reality … writing as a liberating impulse that inevitably offends some who read it — all are in play in this mournfully shape-shifting novel, deftly translated by Mitch Ginsburg.”—Seattle Times

"Track Changes is a dark read, one that offers a detailed look at a man stretched too thin and the demons that weigh him down. But what Kashua brings to the page is well worth experiencing. The novel’s structure and language bring gut-wrenching beauty and unimagined complexity to a life that may have otherwise seemed stripped of it.—Zyzzyva

“Track Changes, translated by Mitch Ginsburg, packs a quiet, powerful punch on three levels. First, it’s a captivating, quietly sad story. Second, it’s a low key but wrenching exposition of Arab Israeli feelings. Third. it’s a reminder for the Twitter age: Whether or not the pen is mightier than the sword, careless use can destroy lives.”—American Jewish World

Praise for Second Person Singular

“A master of subtle nuance in dealing with both Arab and Jewish society.”—New York Times

“Part comedy of manners, part psychological mystery… Issues of nationalism, religion, and passing collide with quickly changing social and sexual mores.”—Boston Globe

“Kashua keenly dissects issues of identity and class…The themes are universal.”—Los Angeles Times

Praise for Let it be Morning

“Kashua goes beyond the front page headlines and horrific newspaper photos of Middle East violence to show a different view of what being an Arab is all about.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“Sharp, powerful, and uncompromising… one of the most potent and impressive novels written in Hebrew in the last several years.”—Haaretz

“Fascinating… Reading Kashua is a reminder of how little fiction from the Middle East we read and how welcome it would be to see more.”—Washington Times

From the Publisher

2019-09-30
An Arab Israeli man reckons with the mistake that determined the course of his life.

The narrator of Kashua's (Native, 2017, etc.) latest novel is a writer, of sorts. He ghostwrites memoirs for the clients who seek him out—most of them elderly, most of them Jewish. Occasionally he inserts his own memories among their narratives. He himself is Arab and for most of the novel goes unnamed; eventually, though, a minor character asks, "Are you Saeed?" and he answers, "Yes." Saeed grew up in Tira, a Palestinian village in Israel. At some point, something went wrong, and Saeed left for Jerusalem. Now, he and his wife and children live in Illinois, and it's been almost 20 years since he's seen the rest of his family. It's Saeed's mistake, whatever it was, that Kashua is primarily concerned with. He circles around it, revealing details only gradually. If he meant for this strategy to hold the reader in suspense, he isn't entirely successful: The result feels too drawn out, as if we've been strung along for too long, with too little to show for it. Saeed's mistake has to do with a short story he wrote years ago, and his wife, it turns out, was the primary victim. So it's unfortunate that his wife, whose name is Palestine, never emerges as a fully-fledged character. Saeed has nothing more insightful to say about her than that "she's beautiful, so beautiful," and she never gets to speak for herself. The most moving parts of the book, in fact, don't have to do with Saeed's mistake at all. These are the descriptions of the prejudice and discrimination Saeed faces at the hands of his Jewish colleagues, a topic that Kashua has already written about, more effectively, elsewhere.

A rambling novel about regret strays too close, too often, to self-pity.

Kirkus Reviews