Description

“Shehadeh’s books are like beacons held up against the darkness” Observer

“A heartbreaking, hopeful look at how Palestinian culture endures” Irish Times

Forgotten is a search for hidden or neglected memorials and places in historic Palestine – now Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories – and what they might tell us about the land and the people who live on our small slip of earth between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.

From ancient city ruins to the Nabi ‘Ukkasha mosque and tomb, acclaimed writers and researchers Raja Shehadeh and Penny Johnson ask: what has been memorialised, and what lies unseen, abandoned or erased – and why? Whether standing on a high cliff overlooking Lebanon or at the lowest land-based elevation on earth at the Dead Sea, they explore lost connections in a fragmented land.

In elegiac, elegant prose, Shehadeh and Johnson grapple not only with questions of Israeli resistance to acknowledging the Nakba – the 1948 catastrophe for Palestinians – but also with the complicated history of Palestinian commemoration today.

Publisher Review

Shehadeh is engaged, forensic, alert to history’s weight but unwilling to let it crush him… Shehadeh’s books are like beacons held up against the darkness of Israeli oppression. Forgotten is perhaps the brightest light of all * Observer * Again and again, I thought of WG Sebald as I read Forgotten. The resemblance lies not only in the mournful elegance of the prose but also in its method: a meditative excavation of history embedded in the landscape * Guardian * A heartbreaking, hopeful look at how Palestinian culture endures in spite of the occupation * Irish Times * Slim but profound * New Statesman * An illuminating and poignant journey through Palestine’s past and present…a tender and undeterred love letter to a contested land * Publishers Weekly * A valuable record of Palestine, as told by two eloquent and erudite observers * Markaz Review * An inspiring account… insightful * Georgraphical * Thought-provoking and uplifting, written with such appreciation for Palestinian history and culture, such love of nature and such concern for the environment. While Forgotten works as an entity, each chapter can be read as self-standing reflections on the search for Palestine’s hidden places and monuments * Morning Star * This precious jewel of a book is a call to preserve the past in order to secure the future. Its hauntingly evocative prose stays with you long after its final pages have been turned * Middle East Eye * The authors have a profound and subtle understanding of history [and] remind us of the astonishing heritage of this sliver of land… Shehadeh’s political and historical analysis is sharp and unsentimental… A really beautiful book * Church Times * Praise for Rajah Shehadeh: In his moral clarity and baring of the heart … Shehadeh recalls writers such as Ghassan Kanafani and Primo Levi * New York Times * A buoy in a sea of bleakness — Rachel Kushner Palestine’s greatest prose writer * Observer * Profoundly personal as well as historically significant … A quiet and deeply felt book — Hisham Matar * The New York Times * Insightful, surprising, and moving — Kamila Shamsie