Miral: A Novel

by Rula Jebreal, John Cullen (Translator)

Overview

Soon to be a major motion picture from the award-winning director Julian Schnabel, starring Freida Pinto.

WRITTEN BY the much-admired Italo-Palestinian journalist Rula Jebreal, Miral is a novel that focuses on remarkable women whose lives unfold in the turbulent political climate along the borders of Israel and Palestine. The story begins with Hind, a woman who sacrifices everything to establish a school for refugee Palestinian girls in East Jerusalem. Years later Miral arrives at the school after her mother commits suicide. Hind sees that Miral has the potential to change the world peacefully-but Miral is appalled by the injustice that surrounds her, and flirts with the notion of armed resistance. Hind desperately works to persuade her to stay the course of education, hard work, and non-violent resolution-but is she too late?

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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143116196
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/03/2010
Edition description:	Movie Tie-in Edition
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	370,799
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Rula Jebreal is an award-winning journalist who specializes in foreign affairs and immigration rights issues. She was born in Haifa, studied and worked in Italy in Italy as an anchor woman for many year, and now makes her home in New York.

Editorial Reviews

This novel of a Palestinian girl growing up amid the intifada is packed with historical facts, but never rises above mediocrity. Philanthropist Hind Husseini creates a children's shelter in 1948 in response to the destruction wrought by the first Arab-Israeli war. Decades later, Miral comes into Hind's care after her mother kills herself. As Miral witnesses the effects of the Israeli campaigns against the intifada, she draws closer to the political fringes, finally choosing to join the struggle in full. Yet the benevolent influence of Hind and an eye-opening friendship with an Israeli socialist subdues Miral's radicalism and offers some hope for the future. Jebreal is a successful journalist in Italy, and true to form the plot rips along with quick-reading prose, though the characters' simplicity presents a big problem, in that, despite the dire circumstances, it's hard to connect with archetypes. It's perfectly serviceable and offers a reliable refresher of the Palestinian struggle, but there are many more distinguished novels on the subject. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Many of us understand the motives of both sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but neglect the stories of the individuals involved. Here, Palestinian-born Jebreal, now a leading Italian journalist, shares the realities of these people—the objectified woman who fights for independence, the intellectual who takes up the pen instead of guns only to meet an untimely death, the young woman who chooses marriage over university. The novel opens with the story of Hind Husseini, who in 1948 finds 55 children abandoned after the first Arab-Israeli war and opens a school. One of her brightest students, Miral, finds herself at the center of the ongoing conflict and increasingly drawn to join the intifada. Jebreal's refusal to categorize her characters as angelic or evil is refreshing; she simply demonstrates that each acts according to circumstances. However, the narrative reads more like nonfiction than fiction; Jebreal seems to tell, not show, readers the emotions and desires of the people who drive her novel. VERDICT With a narrative style that recalls Chico Buarque's Budapest, this work will appeal to lovers of political fiction, particularly when focused on the Arabic world. The novel is soon to be a major motion picture directed by Julian Schnabel, which testifies to its relevance.—Ashanti White, Univ. of North Carolina, Greensboro

Library Journal