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On the Hills of God
A novel
Ibrahim Fawal
NewSouth Books
Montgomery | Louisville
NewSouth Books
P.O. Box 1588
Montgomery, AL 36102
Copyright 1998, 2002, 2006 by Ibrahim Fawal. Foreword copyright 2006 by Robin C. Ostle. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by NewSouth Books, a division of NewSouth, Inc., Montgomery, Alabama.
ISBN-13: 978-1-58838-204-7
eBook ISBN: 978-1-60306-075-2
LCCN: 2004300490
Visit www.newsouthbooks.com
To Rose
Table of Contents
Robin Ostle
This novel is a rare work of literature. Other Palestinian authors of the highest quality, such as Ghassan Kanafani or Emile Habiby, have written novels in Arabic which have been translated into English, but for the most part these books have remained locked within the specialized circles of Arabists and Middle Eastern scholars. On the Hills of God belongs to that small number of creative works written in English by an Arab author, in this case by a Palestinian American who has lived in his adopted country since 1951, yet who has never ceased to be haunted by his childhood and adolescence in Ramallah and by the unending cycle of injustice which has been the lot of the Palestinian people throughout the second half of the past century.
The pages of On the Hills of God pulsate with passion, drama, and violence: the love affair of Yousif Safi and Salwa Tawil which triumphs against the powerful odds of social convention in a traditional society; and the killing of Dr. Jamil Safi which is a powerful symbol of the death of the future of Palestine, a future that was full of promise grounded in vision, humanity, and the common cause of Muslim, Christian, and Jew. The culmination of the book is rape, pillage, the slaughter of the innocents, and forced migrations—all the usual and predictable consequences of the exercise of brute force in the place of compassion, reason, and compromise. Interwoven with the fictitious human drama of the novel are the momentous historical events of 1947–48; the approaching end of the British Mandate, the abortive UN Partition Plan, and the Arab-Israeli war and its aftermath which is still with us.
But beyond the compelling pace and gripping tension of the plot, this is a novel with special ingredients made up of the rich texture of the vital details of the necessities and rituals of daily life: the food that accompanied family and festive occasions is described with minute and loving precision, emphasizing the connectedness of a
