Nahr reflects on her life and how she ended up incarcerated by Israel in the Cube, a specially-conceived solitary confinement.

This is one of those books that was truly excellent, but hard to review because I don’t think I’ll be able to do it justice. Abulhawa skilfully weaves multiple heavy topics through the story - the effects and continuing fallout of the Nakba, the many facets of loss suffered by refugees and the toll this takes, the realities of life for Palestinians now and their treatment by Israel - without completely drowning the book in misery. I loved getting to know Nahr as her story unfolds over the course of the book and as we discover the many daily indignities faced by Palestinians along with her. Her identity and relationship to Palestine is layered, complex and ever-changing as part of a diaspora, as the child of refugees, as a refugee from her adopted home, as a returnee, and I found this evolution so fascinating. Knowing from the start that Nahr is incarcerated in the Cube makes the story no less compelling - what could she have possibly done to merit such treatment? In the West, the Middle East tends to be misrepresented as a unified block of Arab countries, and Abulhawa presents some of the intricacies and politics between different countries and with the idea that not everyone considered Sadam Hussein as black-and-white bad, she brings in nuance, grey areas and human nature. An excellently-written story of the Palestinian struggle, the myriad of repeated losses suffered by refugees and the evolution of identity when your world is upended, but also a story of family and love and a little bit of hope.