Uploaded March 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Ibtisam Azem’s ‘The Book of Disappearance’ has a quiet and earnest approach that shines through an unacceptably bad translation. Longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025.
6/10
The Book of Disappearance: Alaa is haunted by his grandmother’s memories of being displaced from Jaffa and becoming a refugee in her homeland after the Nakba. Ariel, Alaa’s 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 their collective disappearance. That search, and Ariel’s reactions 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 – café patrons, radio commentators, flower-cutters – against whose ordinary lives these fissures and questions play out.
Thanks for watching, and remember: is the book going to get a patch update?
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#bookerprize2025 #bookerprize #internationalbookerprize #booktube #booktuber #bookreview
Ibtisam Azem’s ‘The Book of Disappearance’ has a quiet and earnest approach that shines through an unacceptably bad translation. Longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025.
6/10
The Book of Disappearance: Alaa is haunted by his grandmother’s memories of being displaced from Jaffa and becoming a refugee in her homeland after the Nakba. Ariel, Alaa’s 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 their collective disappearance. That search, and Ariel’s reactions 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 – café patrons, radio commentators, flower-cutters – against whose ordinary lives these fissures and questions play out.
Thanks for watching, and remember: is the book going to get a patch update?
Goodreads: goodreads.com/user/show/61199102
Letterboxd: letterboxd.com/TheDiscoKing
Instagram: instagram.com/funkydaddydisco
#bookerprize2025 #bookerprize #internationalbookerprize #booktube #booktuber #bookreview
