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THE HONEY by Zeina B. Ghandour

THE HONEY

by Zeina B. Ghandour

Pub Date: June 1st, 2001
ISBN: 0-7043-8120-6
Publisher: Quartet/Interlink

Young Lebanese writer Ghandour’s debut, set in Palestine under Israeli occupation, offers an intriguing fresh perspective on its overworked subject. A visiting woman journalist slowly pieces together the story of Yehya, an ardent fundamentalist who’s diverted from a suicide-bombing mission by the (mysteriously) overheard prayers of his sweetheart Ruhiya. A collage of voices, all caught up in the texture of “the honey” (a metaphoric aura symbolizing the Palestinian culture itself), discloses the details, in a magical-realist modern folktale that’s also intermittently reminiscent of Camus’s classic L’Etranger. An exceptional debut.