Number of pages: 74 pages
Umm Saad, “who now stands under the low ceiling of misery in the high ranks of the battle, paying, and continues to pay more than everyone else.” This is how Ghassan Kanafani, the Palestinian political novelist, introduced the Palestinian mother when he wrote a novel in 1969. It is as if “Umm Saad” is the point at which Kanafani’s previous novels intersect. She is the lost character in his previous novels, the implicit one that hides behind the lines and intertwines with the characters, and does not announce itself until it is integrated into historical reality. It is as if Kanafani’s novels are a mirror of the struggle’s consciousness, or as if they are a constant attempt to write an objective equivalent to the historical experience.
