'The Book of Disappearance': The dangerous ease with which colonial dispossession can become routine

Ibtisam Azem has been peering into the lives of displaced Palestinians in Tel Aviv for a few years now, and she’s heartbroken by what she finds: in an with The Booker Prize, she elaborates on the anger she felt upon hearing an Israeli politician make false claims about the equality Palestinians enjoyed in Jerusalem and all the privileges they were offered. This anger finds place within the plot of , written by Azem and translated by Sinan Antoon, wherein all Palestinians in Israel go missing one day. The uncomfortable effect of this disappearance – or rather a fulfilment of the Zionist project – guides the novel through a stunning narrative that seeks to understand the memory of loss and the loss of memory.

The Palestinian experience

“I wish you were here. Missing you is like a rose of thorns.” The book opens with a journal entry by Alaa, the narrator of the story, chronicling his grandmother’s lived experiences in Palestine pre-1948. Alaa’s neighbour and friend, Ariel, is a liberal Zionist, who condemns the military’s destruction of the West Bank and Gaza yet remains loyal to the foundations of Israel. It becomes his mission to investigate the disappearance of all Palestinians, and we are witness to his journey as...