Rarely has a novel gained such brutal topicality right after it was written. Sonia asks her sister Haneen: Do you think there will be a third intifada? No, replies Haneen, and adds: Far too much to lose. Sonia thinks: This was written just over six months before the fatal Hamas attack on Israel and the inhumane consequences of Israel’s retaliation. The fiction’s question has received a gruesome answer from reality: the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip had even more to lose. Now the novel “Gjenferdet inn” is out in Norwegian, impeccably translated by Bjørn Alex Herrman. It should be read by many. Isabella Hammad Photo: The Pelikan British-Palestinian writer. She was born in 1992 and raised in Acton, a Palestinian neighborhood in London. She alternates between living in London and in Paris. She has studied English at Oxford University. Later she also studied at Harvard University and New York University. “Gjenferdet inn” is her second novel. Before writing her debut book “Pariseren” (2019), she spent a year in the Middle East where she did research and collected data. The book is based on Hammad’s own family history. She has won and been nominated for several awards, and her novels have been translated into several languages. The political power of art However, it is not an easy book to read. “Gjenferdet inn” almost takes a beating under the weight of details and stories that slowly and elaborately unfold. But if you take the time, you will get a shocking picture of the experiences of tested Palestinians over the past eighty years. British-Palestinian Isabella Hammad writes about belonging, about sister relationships, about oppression and rebellion. After all, she writes about the importance of art in life. On the West Bank, in an acute, exposed existence, art gains political power. But the road to art is thorny. Border posts, surveillance, arrests and police interrogations ensure this. About returning home The structuring plot is as follows: Sonia Nasir, who is in her late 30s, is an actress in London. After a difficult breakup, she goes to visit her sister who lives in Haifa. Both sisters grew up in the UK, but spent all their summer holidays with their grandparents in Israel. They were Palestinians who refused to move in 1948, when the state of Israel was established and tens of thousands of Palestinians were displaced. Now the old family house has been sold and the family is scattered to all winds. Is it possible to find back? Or will the house and family history forever remain a ghost? Letting the art play itself out What was supposed to be a short visit stretches out in time. Sonia is lured into a theater project where a group will stage William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” on the West Bank. Sonia gets the role of Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, the one who treacherously marries Hamlet’s uncle Claudius. It turns out that he is the one who has taken the king of days. Here Hammad uses one of the oldest tricks in the history of literature, often used by William Shakespeare himself: inserting a theatrical performance into the play itself (here the novel). The author allows art, the seemingly innocent theatrical play, to reveal injustice and abuse – and in that way confront the abuser. Whether we are talking about 17th-century England or 21st-century Israel, the theater becomes the underdog’s means of promoting dangerous criticism. Gives “Hamlet” new life The title “Gjenferdet inn” is a stage direction from “Hamlet”. It is exceptionally apt. Because Sonia’s life is full of ghosts. It could be the Palestinian ancestors, the marriage that broke up or the child she never had. The relationship with the sister, where silence and misunderstandings have created distance, is described with good psychological insight. Lack of communication also has disastrous consequences on a more general level. The Shakespeare play itself is given new life in the actors’ performance. They see “Hamlet” as a riot drama and then also fear that the performance will be stopped by the Israeli authorities. Revenge is a central motif in “Hamlet”. With Hammad, the motive of revenge is turned into resistance. To action: Acting. Even a local theater performance, played for a few hundred spectators, can counteract hopelessness. Mature author I discovered Isabella Hammad four years ago, when she made her debut with the novel “The Parisian”. There she writes about a Palestinian family’s itinerant life and uses her own great-grandfather as a model for the main character, the medical student Midhat. When she now writes about the very near present, she also draws long threads back to past Palestinian resistance struggles. She shows herself to be a mature and reflective writer, despite her relatively young age. “Gjenferdet inn” is an intelligent novel. It’s an ambitious narrative that effortlessly navigates major moral questions at the same time as it goes razor-sharp into an actor’s work with himself – and the opportunity to speak the truth. Yes, Isabella Hammad weaves together art and politics in a very good novel that also gives renewed faith that art is important in real, difficult life. news reviewer Photo: Pelikanen Title: “Gjenferdet inn” Author: Isabella Hammad Translator: Bjørn Alex Herrman Year of publication: 2024 Number of pages: 349 Publisher: Pelikanen ISBN: 9788283831474 Changed 12.06.24 at 10.02: The sentence “In an authoritarian society, whether we speaking of 17th-century England or 21st-century Israel, the theater becomes the underdog’s means of promoting dangerous criticism.” has been changed to “Whether we are talking about 17th-century England or 21st-century Israel, the theater becomes the underdog’s means of promoting dangerous criticism.” Published 12.06.2024, at 08.35 Updated 12.06.2024, at 10.02
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“Gjenferdet inn” by Isabella Hammad – news Culture and entertainment
