Kingdom of Olives and Ash: Writers Confront the Occupation

by Michael Chabon, Ayelet Waldman

Overview

A groundbreaking collection of essays by celebrated international writers bears witness to the human cost of fifty years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

In Kingdom of Olives and Ash, Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman, two of today's most renowned novelists and essayists, have teamed up with the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence—an organization comprised of former Israeli soldiers who served in the occupied territories and saw firsthand the injustice there—and a host of illustrious writers to tell the stories of the people on the ground in the contested territories.

Kingdom of Olives and Ash includes contributions from several of today’s most esteemed storytellers including: Colum McCann, Jacqueline Woodson, Colm Toibin, Geraldine Brooks, Dave Eggers, Hari Kunzru, Raja Shehadeh, Mario Vargas Llosa and Assaf Gavron, as well as from editors Chabon and Waldman. Through these incisive, perceptive, and poignant essays, readers will gain unique insight into the narratives behind the litany of grim destruction broadcasted nightly on the news, as well as deeper understanding of the conflict as experienced by the people who live in the occupied territories. Together, these stories stand witness to the human cost of the occupation.

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062431783
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	05/30/2017
Pages:	448
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Michael Chabon is the bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Moonglow and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, among many others. He lives in Berkeley, California with his wife, the novelist Ayelet Waldman, and their children.

Ayelet Waldman is the author of, among other books, the memoir A Really Good Day and the novel Love & Treasure. She is the editor of the anthology Inside This Place Not of It: Narratives from Women's Prisons. 

 

Hometown:

Berkeley, California

Date of Birth:

May 24, 1963

Place of Birth:

Washington, D.C.

Education:

B.A., University of Pittsburgh; M.F.A., University of California at Irvine

Website:

http://www.michaelchabon.com/

Table of Contents

Introduction Ayelet Waldman Michael Chabon vii

The Dovekeeper Geraldine Brooks 1

One's Own People Jacqueline Woodson 13

Bloated Time and the Death of Meaning Ala Hlehel 19

Giant in a Cage Michael Chabon 29

The Land in Winter Madeleine Thien 55

Mr. Nice Guy Rachel Kushner 73

Sami Raja Shehadeh 87

Occupied Words Lars Saabye Christensen 101

Prison Visit Dave Eggers 117

Sumud Emily Raboteau 159

Journey to the West Bank Mario Vargas Llosa 179

Playing for Palestine Assaf Gavron 191

Love in the Time of Qalandiya Taiye Selasi 209

Imagining Jericho Colm Tóibín 225

The End of Reasons Eimear McBride 247

High Places Hari Kunzru 257

Storyland Lorraine Adams 273

The Separation Wall Helon Habila 293

A Hundred Children Eva Menasse 309

Visible, Invisible: Two Worlds Anita Desai 321

Hip-Hop Is Not Dead Porochista Khakpour 327

Occupation's Untold Story Fida Jiryis 337

An Unsuitable Place for Clowns Arnon Grunberg 353

Justice, Justice You Shall Pursue Ayelet Waldman 371

Two Stories, So Many Stories Colum Mccann 389

H2 Maylis de Kerangal 405

Afterword 419

Acknowledgments 423

Contributors 425

Permissions 433

Editorial Reviews

02/13/2017
Authors Waldman and Chabon, together with the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence, a group of former soldiers who served in the West Bank and Gaza, have compiled a hefty volume of essays about life in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. The results vary, but the message is unwavering: life under occupation is frightening and oppressive. Strong efforts include Geraldine Brooks’s opening piece, about two Palestinian children caught up in cyclical violence. Rachel Kushner draws out the unsavory subject of Palestinian-on-Palestinian violence. Chabon himself addresses the curbs placed on Palestinian commerce and how this also redefines the Palestinian experience of “normal life.” But other writers see the occupation through self-involved lenses, and Waldman, in her wrenching account of detained children and their training in nonviolent resistance, seems to only belatedly realize that the attention she gives her sources adds to their troubles. Because of the limits of the NGO’s network, the same anti-occupation activists repeat their roles as informants and show up in multiple essays, reinforcing the situation’s grinding hopelessness. Hannah Barag, an Israeli octogenarian and checkpoint monitor, is a rare voice of prediction amid the general feeling of stasis: “I think the system is going to collapse.” Agent: Mary Evans, Mary Evans Inc. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Dramatic testimonies... radiant with telling details, vital portraits, and explosive facts.... This sensitive, galvanizing, and landmark gathering brings the occupation into sharp focus as a tragedy of fear and tyranny, a monumental failure of compassion and justice, a horrific obstacle to world peace.” — Booklist, starred review

“On the 50th anniversary of Israeli occupation of Palestine, top writers bear witness to oppression and despair.... moving, heartbreaking, and infuriating.... Deeply unsettling, important stories call for urgent responses to the Middle East conflict.” — Kirkus, starred review

From the Publisher

Dramatic testimonies... radiant with telling details, vital portraits, and explosive facts.... This sensitive, galvanizing, and landmark gathering brings the occupation into sharp focus as a tragedy of fear and tyranny, a monumental failure of compassion and justice, a horrific obstacle to world peace.

starred review Booklist

01/01/2017
For this anthology, published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, esteemed novelists Chabon and Waldman join with the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence—an organization of former Israeli soldiers who served in the occupied territories—to present voices about a deeply contentious issue. With a 40,000-copy first printing.

Library Journal

★ 2017-03-02
On the 50th anniversary of Israeli occupation of Palestine, top writers bear witness to oppression and despair.When Waldman (A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life, 2017, etc.) visited Israel for the Jerusalem International Writers Festival in 2014, she met members of the nonprofit groups Breaking the Silence and Youth Against Settlements, who helped her to understand "the massive, often brutal, always dehumanizing military bureaucracy" that defines the occupation. Hoping to focus attention on the desperate situation, she and her husband, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Chabon (Moonglow, 2016, etc.), invited an international roster of writers to tour towns and villages in the Israeli-occupied territories and meet with community organizers, workers, artists, activists, farmers, and families, as well as Israeli settlers and disillusioned soldiers. Their responses to those visits are moving, heartbreaking, and infuriating, testifying to the chilling cruelty of Israel's policy toward Palestinians. Even Palestinians given Israeli citizenship are vulnerable to "demographic transfer"—or "forced displacement" in order "to achieve the ‘purity' of ‘the Jewish state,' " writes Palestinian-born, British-educated Fida Jiryis. "One can only wonder at the sadistic ingenuity with which Israel has woven an airtight system around us to suffocate every aspect of our lives." Walls are a recurrent image: they keep Palestinians in their crumbling towns and separate farmers from their land, workers from their jobs, and family members from one another. Gaza, writes Dave Eggers, "is a prison" with a 40-mile, 25-foot wall on its northern border with Israel and the heavily patrolled Mediterranean on the west. Checkpoints require elaborate documentation, which takes countless hours to assemble. As Chabon notes, "control of time is one of the biggest weapons of the occupation." Young soldiers wield deadly power capriciously; houses are evacuated and razed in the middle of the night; a refugee camp has "no infrastructure of any kind." Among the most well-known contributors are Geraldine Brooks, Mario Vargas Llosa, Colum McCann, and Jacqueline Woodson; royalties will go to NGOs. Deeply unsettling, important stories call for urgent responses to the Middle East conflict.

Kirkus Reviews

This audiobook tackles one of the most controversial issues in world politics today: the fight between Israelis and Palestinians over disputed lands in the Middle East. It’s a serious book with heated opinions that fill the pages with proposed solutions that, at this time, remain unfulfilled. Fred Sanders and Gabra Zackman share the narration, and both do a terrific job. Sanders uses his deep voice to create an emotional connection with the listener and pauses effectively to create tension and suspense. Zackman also captures the central emotions inherent in the work, and her placid but insistently strong voice grabs attention and demands that listeners reflect seriously on the author’s ideas. The result is an audiobook that will continue the debate, with common people, not politicians, at the forefront. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

JUNE 2017 - AudioFile