Description

**WINNER OF THE RSL ENCORE AWARD 2024**
**SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2024**

Reeling from a disastrous love affair, actress Sonia Nasir finds love and hope in Shakespeare and Palestine.

‘I absolutely loved it’
MONICA ALI

‘Remarkable… My heart will never be the same’
BARBARA KINGSOLVER

‘Moving and unforgettable’
SALLY ROONEY

After years away from her family’s homeland, and reeling from a disastrous love affair, actress Sonia Nasir returns to Haifa to visit her older sister Haneen. On her arrival, she finds her relationship to Palestine is fragile, both bone-deep and new.

When Sonia meets the charismatic Mariam, a local director, she joins a production of Hamlet in the West Bank. Soon, Sonia is rehearsing with a dedicated, if competitive, group of men – yet as opening night draws closer, it becomes clear just how many obstacles stand before the troupe. Amidst it all, the life she once knew starts to give way to the exhilarating possibility of finding a new self in her ancestral home.

‘A vital storyteller’
ALI SMITH

‘A novel to savour’
SUNDAY TIMES

‘Spectacular’
NAOMI KLEIN

‘Captivating…deeply moving’
HARPER’S BAZAAR

‘Powerful… Hammad is a pretty flawless writer’
THE TIMES

A GRANTA BEST YOUNG BRITISH NOVELIST
SHORTLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE 2024
SHORTLISTED FOR THE GORDON BOWKER PRIZE 2024

* A BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR THE TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES, NEW YORK TIMES, WASHINGTON POST AND VULTURE *

Publisher Review

Feels completely different to anything else being written right now in English, a heartfelt meditation on the relationship between art and politics. * Sunday Times * Enter Ghost retells Hamlet for now, dropping its readers deep into the contemporary tensions of the West Bank, asking crucial and layered questions... Hammad is a calm and vital storyteller, a writer of real rhythmic grace. -- Ali Smith, author of Autumn A powerful new novel... Hammad is a pretty flawless writer. * The Times * Beautifully written, poignant yet forceful, thoughtful and thought provoking, but above all challenging the reader to respond to the question facing the characters in the novel: how to live under occupation while preserving your dignity and humanity? Hammad answers this question through taking us into the hearts and minds of the characters in the novel and through that into the heart and mind of Palestine. -- Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran A thought-provoking and highly topical story about the complex connections to be found in art, politics and family life. * Sunday Times, *Books of the Year* *