Recognising the Stranger (On Palestine and Narrative) is an attempt by Isabella Hammad to subtly wrest the Palestine conflict away from non-fiction writers. To show how in Rashid Khalidi’s words, “Literature can be much, much more revealing than political writing”. That fiction has something to say about turning points and changes of perspective in the struggle for peace and a free Palestine. “It’s difficult in life to pinpoint with any real sense of confidence where a turning point is located”. Maybe it’s located sometime around October 2023, when the grisly attack by Hamas, “Showed that a system in which one population is afforded rights that the other population is denied will be safe for neither”. Or maybe it’s located in narratives that highlight ‘recognition’ or Aristotle’s anagnorisis: the movement from ignorance to knowledge. Her references range freely from Elena Ferrante to Alaa Abd El-Fattah (among others) as she picks her way through stories which highlight the brutality of Palestinian life under the occupation and “Tell the human story that will educate and enlighten others and so allow for the conversion of the repentant Westerner”. Or can Israeli violence facilitated by Western governments and the arms industry be disrupted by other means? As Isabella Hammad concludes, “They can never complete the process, because they cannot kill us all.” Totally recommended, as is Isabella Hammad’s excellent recent novel Enter Ghost.

Recognising the Stranger (On Palestine and Narrative) – Isabella Hammad – publ. by Fern Press £9.99

Steven Long