Velvet

WINNER OF THE NAGUIB MAHFOUZ MEDAL FOR LITERATURE WINNER OF THE 202 SAIF GHOBASH BANIPAL PRIZE FOR ARABIC LITERARY TRANSLATION ONE OF THE 50 MOST IMPORTANT ARABIC NOVELS OF THE 21ST CENTURY (THE NATIONAL) "This is a deeply human book. . . . a masterwork."–Omar El Akkad, LitHub A novel of enormous power and great beauty, in which a Palestinian woman raised in a refugee camp learns to sew which helps her to construct a life Hawwa is a child of the grinding hardship of a Palestinian refugee camp. She has had to survive the camp itself, as well as the humiliation and destruction of an abusive family. But now, in her middle years something most unexpected has happened: she has fallen in love. Velvet unfolds over a day in Hawwa’s life, as she makes plans for a new beginning. She sifts through her memories: stories of her family, her