This is an extraordinary book in so many ways - from the way it's narrated, beautifully weaving Sireen's story and Sami's context to its politics. Sireen's story is the very definition of sumud, steadfastness and ins deeply inspiring and moving as a result. The story is also quite harrowing to endure, albeit vicariously, what they all must go through as a result of settler colonialism in Palestine. 

I love that Sireen's brother, who much of the story revolves around, is not an easy hero to read about for most people in the West. And yet there Iyad is in all his glory as a dedicated resistance fighter. I love how the book makes you feel like you are re-living the second intifada as you follow Iyad's journey and Sireen's attempt to retrace his steps. I love the way Iyad's experience in prison is depicted and how resonant it is with the ongoing captivity of Palestinians in Israeli jails. Indeed, I love how Sami and Sireen's choice of language - using words like captivity - to accurate depict what it is for Palestinians who are kidnapped from their homes and loved ones and tortured in Israeli jails. I love how whenever Sami narrates the story of going to parts of 1948 Palestine - whether to follow Iyad as he goes from Israeli prison to Israeli prison or to follow the different resistance fighters as they pull off their operations - we get a history of that land: what it's origianl name is, what happened to the Palestinians who were forced off that land. It's a beautiful model for storytelling. 

Sami and Sireen's use of language and their contextualizing of the land - including the insistence of Arabic place names written in the Arabic script - brings all of historic Palestine to life in profound ways. 

Reading this book now - in 2025 - in the midst of massive campaigns to kidnap and imprison hundreds of Palestinians across the West Bank, especially in towns like Jenin and Turlkarem where so many of the people whose stories you will find in these pages, makes the book all the more timely, powerful, and resonant.