The Book of Disappearance

Alaa, a young Palestinian, is haunted by his grandmother's memories of being displaced from Jaffa and becoming a refugee in her homeland. Ariel, Alaas neighbour and friend, is a liberal Zionist, critical of the military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza yet faithful to the project of Israel. When he wakes up one morning to find that all Palestinians have suddenly vanished, Ariel begins searching for clues to the secret of the collective disappearance; that search, and his reaction to it, intimately reveal the fissures at the heart of the Palestinian question. Between the stories of Alaa and Ariel are the people of Jaffa and Tel Aviv caf patrons, radio commentators, flower-cutters against whose ordinary lives these fissures and questions play out. In this immensely readable novel, Ms. Azem does not resolve for us the calamity of Palestine's occupation by Israel. But stylishly and with jeweled virtuosity she makes us understand that acts of great and humane imagination will be required, and with this potent book points where and how we must all go. Richard Ford