Adania Shibli’s Minor Detail tells the story of a brutal and horrifying crime committed in 1949, one year after the War of 1948, which Palestinians mourn at the Nakba and Israelis celebrate as the War of Independence. This novel follows two storylines:

1) In the first story, we read from the perspective of an Israeli soldier as a young Palestinian girl is raped and murdered by a group of soldiers on the 13th of August 1949.

2) In the second story, we follow a woman in Ramallah who reads about this horrific story and notices a minor detail, causing her to become fascinated by it to the point of obsession.

Only spanning 164 pages, Minor Detail is a feat. Based off a true story, this book will leave you distraught. Adania Shibli has done such a fantastic job with this brutally poignant novel.

Please check trigger warnings before you read this, it is extremely heavy in subject matter.