Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
A stunning historical novel, vast in its scope, of Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon, and all that was lost in the Nakba and its aftermath
Nidal and Rabie were childhood sweethearts, their love blossoming during the resistance and struggle of the 1948 Nakba and then collapsing with the loss of Palestine and the dispersion and exile that followed. Now, after long lives lived far apart on opposite sides of the world, they find themselves living under the same roof, enduring together the Israeli siege imposed on Palestinian life in the West Bank.
The unexpected arrival of Lara, a young cousin Nidal did not know she had, triggers a journey of discovery when Lara declares she wants to locate her father’s – Nidal’s uncle Amin’s—papers. In these papers, the story of Syrian Nationalist leader Antoun Saadeh unfolds, through a trove of letters and memories written by Amin, his beloved Lisa, Rabie, and Saadeh himself.
PRAISE FOR MY FIRST AND ONLY LOVE:
”A great read." —PBS Newshour
“Recommended.”—Electric Literature
"Khalifeh’s narrative style is sensitive, thrifty, and transparent.”—Asymptote
"Epic."—The Electronic Intifada
"A page-turner."—The Washington Report
"Meaningful and beautiful"—Middle East Monitor
"Written with an emotive urgency and prescience that the Palestinian struggle demands."—The New Arab
"A moving, urgent exploration into history, political urgency, humanity, and home."—Happy Media
PRAISE FOR SAHAR KHALIFEH:
"If there is an Arabic novelist who deserves the Nobel Prize, after Naguib Mahfouz, it is Sahar Khalifeh."—World Literature Today
“Sahar Khalifeh is the Virginia Woolf of Palestinian literature.”—Börsenblatt
"Khalifeh is a first-class story-teller."—The Modern Novel
“Highly recommended.” —Library Journal
"Incisively explores individual lives—particularly women’s lives—in the years just before 1948.”—Marcia Lynx Qualey, ArabLit
“The best Arab woman novelist in the twentieth century.”—Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban
"Khalifeh is simply the greatest Palestinian novelist and one of the world’s greatest historical novelists, ranking with Naguib Mahfouz, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, and Pramoedya Ananta Toer.”—James Holstun, University at Buffalo
Sahar Khalifeh was born in Nablus in 1941 and is the author of eight novels, including Of Noble Origin, The Image, the Icon, and the Covenant, for which she was awarded the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature, and most recently, My First and Only Love. She holds a PhD in women’s studies and American literature from the University of Iowa. She divides her time between Amman and Nablus.
Aida Bamia is a literary translator and professor emerita of Arabic language and literature at the University of Florida. She lives between Cairo and Paris.