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Songs for the Dead and the Living
When the ground beneath your feet is always shifting, how can you ever know where you belong?
Jamilah has always believed she knows where her home is: in a house above a paint shop on the outskirts of Beirut, with her large, chaotic, loving family. But she soon learns that as Palestinian refugees, her family's life in Lebanon is precarious, and they must try to blend in even as they fight to retain their identity.
When conflict comes to Beirut, Jamilah's world fractures, and the family is forced to flee to Cairo: another escape, and another slip further away from Palestine, the homeland to which they cannot return. In the end, Jamilah will have to choose between everything she knows and pursuing a life she can truly call her own.
Songs for the Dead and the Living is a coming-of-age tale played out across generations and continents, from Palestine to Australia. Through stunning prose, acclaimed writer and human-rights activist Sara M Saleh offers a breathtaking portrait of the fragilities and flaws of family in the wake of war, and the love it takes to overcome great loss.
Jamilah has always believed she knows where her home is: in a house above a paint shop on the outskirts of Beirut, with her large, chaotic, loving family. But she soon learns that as Palestinian refugees, her family's life in Lebanon is precarious, and they must try to blend in even as they fight to retain their identity.
When conflict comes to Beirut, Jamilah's world fractures, and the family is forced to flee to Cairo: another escape, and another slip further away from Palestine, the homeland to which they cannot return. In the end, Jamilah will have to choose between everything she knows and pursuing a life she can truly call her own.
Songs for the Dead and the Living is a coming-of-age tale played out across generations and continents, from Palestine to Australia. Through stunning prose, acclaimed writer and human-rights activist Sara M Saleh offers a breathtaking portrait of the fragilities and flaws of family in the wake of war, and the love it takes to overcome great loss.
288 pages, Paperback
First published August 29, 2023
About the author
Sara M. Saleh
7 books32 followersSara M Saleh is a writer, critical race and human rights lawyer, organiser, and the daughter of migrants from Palestine, Egypt, and Lebanon. Her poems, short stories, and essays have been published widely in English and Arabic in Australian Poetry Journal, Overland, Meanjin, Cordite Poetry Review, Red Room, Kill Your Darlings, Rabbit Poetry Journal, SBS, and in anthologies the Sweatshop Women’s Anthology: Volume II, Racism, Making Mirrors, Solid Air: Australian and New Zealand Spoken Word, A Blade of Grass, Groundswell: The Best of Australian Poetry, Borderless: a transnational anthology of feminist poetry, Racism, and Another Australia. She is co-editor of the groundbreaking 2019 anthology Arab, Australian, Other: Stories on Race and Identity.
Sara has run poetry workshops in countless classrooms, community spaces, and festivals across the country, and has performed nationally and internationally. She is the recipient of the inaugural Affirm fellowship for Sweatshop writers, Neilma Sidney travel grant, Varuna writers residency, and Amant New York writers residency, amongst other honours. Her latest collaborative project, Muslim Poetry Project: Retreat and Anthology, is underway.
Sara made history as the first poet to win both the Australian Book Review’s 2021 Peter Porter Poetry Prize and the Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize 2020.
Her debut novel SONGS FOR THE DEAD AND THE LIVING (Affirm Press, 2023) was shortlisted for the US-based Khairallah Prize for Literature and a NSW Premier’s Literary Award, and her full-length poetry collection, THE FLIRTATION OF GIRLS (UQP, 2023) is currently shortlisted for the 2024 ALS Gold Medal, the ALS Mary Gilmore Award and won the 2023 Anne Elder Award.
Sara is based on Bidjigal land with her partner and their four fur babies.
Sara has run poetry workshops in countless classrooms, community spaces, and festivals across the country, and has performed nationally and internationally. She is the recipient of the inaugural Affirm fellowship for Sweatshop writers, Neilma Sidney travel grant, Varuna writers residency, and Amant New York writers residency, amongst other honours. Her latest collaborative project, Muslim Poetry Project: Retreat and Anthology, is underway.
Sara made history as the first poet to win both the Australian Book Review’s 2021 Peter Porter Poetry Prize and the Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize 2020.
Her debut novel SONGS FOR THE DEAD AND THE LIVING (Affirm Press, 2023) was shortlisted for the US-based Khairallah Prize for Literature and a NSW Premier’s Literary Award, and her full-length poetry collection, THE FLIRTATION OF GIRLS (UQP, 2023) is currently shortlisted for the 2024 ALS Gold Medal, the ALS Mary Gilmore Award and won the 2023 Anne Elder Award.
Sara is based on Bidjigal land with her partner and their four fur babies.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews
December 6, 2023
I knew from the minute I first laid my eyes on this book and read the description that it was going to be a beautiful read that I had to pick it up. I am so happy to say I was right.
Song For The Living and The Dead is a moving and beautiful book that follows the lives of a Palestinian-Lebanese family and their struggles as their family is continuously displaced from their homes due to the aggression of the occupation of the Israeli army.
This book portrayed the reality of the generational trauma that has been an integral consequence of the Nakba and the ongoing bombardments carried out on Palestine by the US-funded settler colony that is Israel. It explores the devastating truth that Palestinians are treated like prisoners with no rights in their own country and the discrimination that they face daily because of where they and/or their family was born.
This is such an important read, especially in today’s time as the world witnesses Israel commit atrocities against Palestine once again by displacing millions, killing thousands and contributing to the genocide that Israel has been perpetrating for the past 75+ years.
I can’t wait to read more from this author.
Song For The Living and The Dead is a moving and beautiful book that follows the lives of a Palestinian-Lebanese family and their struggles as their family is continuously displaced from their homes due to the aggression of the occupation of the Israeli army.
This book portrayed the reality of the generational trauma that has been an integral consequence of the Nakba and the ongoing bombardments carried out on Palestine by the US-funded settler colony that is Israel. It explores the devastating truth that Palestinians are treated like prisoners with no rights in their own country and the discrimination that they face daily because of where they and/or their family was born.
This is such an important read, especially in today’s time as the world witnesses Israel commit atrocities against Palestine once again by displacing millions, killing thousands and contributing to the genocide that Israel has been perpetrating for the past 75+ years.
I can’t wait to read more from this author.
September 18, 2023
A wonderful novel detailing the pain and separation enveloped in the Palestinian conflict, and the effect it has on those who are displaced. Jamilah is a part of a loving family who find themselves exiled from their homeland due to war, and struggle to find a place to call home. Jamilah's journey is filled with hope and love and tragedy, and serves to teach the lesson that not all who wander are looking for something; rather they may be walking away.
4 stars didn't feel right, but neither did 5. There were many passages that I marked up in this novel where I found the writing profound and moving. For me, though, the ending felt a little rushed and this was the only thing that let the novel down.
A wonderful read.
4 stars didn't feel right, but neither did 5. There were many passages that I marked up in this novel where I found the writing profound and moving. For me, though, the ending felt a little rushed and this was the only thing that let the novel down.
A wonderful read.
December 4, 2023
A truth-bearing Palestinian family’s story that crosses generations and borders, and explores love and resistance at the face of displacement and imperialism.
May 24, 2024
3.75 still processing my thoughts kinda
Read
June 6, 2024this book was a brilliant representation of the families that have been displaced since the 1948 nakba (‘the catastrophe’) in palestine.
March 4, 2024
While this novel stretches largely over a single decade, from 1977 to 1987, and is structured as a bildungsroman taking protagonist Jamilah from 9 to 19, it has the feel of a sweeping epic. Jamilah, like her father before her, is born in exile and grows up running. Her grandfather killed in Nakba, while her pregnant grandmother fled to Lebanon, she was raised in Beit Samra amid Civil War, her Palestinian father unable to bequeath her citizenship in a country she can live in. When the family flees to Egypt, this fragile status is further disrupted.
A lot is going on for Jamilah, and Saleh wrestles her narrative around sectarian division, changing views of modernity, education, and gender, the challenge to and opportunity of art in war, the politics of Middle Eastern and North African states, domestic violence and the ongoing waves from Palestine's occupation. For me, the book didn't entirely succeed in living up to the strength of its opening prologue. At times, the characters felt rushed between beats and major events, with dialogue awkwardly designed to get there. There are times when you see glimpses of Saleh's considerable mastery of language, especially in regards to Jamilah's art, but at others, the characters speak like they are catching us up.
The biggest strength here is the portrayal of Jamilah's tight-knit family. Saleh gives us a rich cast of sisters, parents, and extended loved ones. Their bond is strong as silk, without being sugar-coated. In this way, Saleh shows us the survival of a Palestinian home, among those who have never set foot there.
A lot is going on for Jamilah, and Saleh wrestles her narrative around sectarian division, changing views of modernity, education, and gender, the challenge to and opportunity of art in war, the politics of Middle Eastern and North African states, domestic violence and the ongoing waves from Palestine's occupation. For me, the book didn't entirely succeed in living up to the strength of its opening prologue. At times, the characters felt rushed between beats and major events, with dialogue awkwardly designed to get there. There are times when you see glimpses of Saleh's considerable mastery of language, especially in regards to Jamilah's art, but at others, the characters speak like they are catching us up.
The biggest strength here is the portrayal of Jamilah's tight-knit family. Saleh gives us a rich cast of sisters, parents, and extended loved ones. Their bond is strong as silk, without being sugar-coated. In this way, Saleh shows us the survival of a Palestinian home, among those who have never set foot there.
December 1, 2023
Such an important read, especially right now. For people in Australia to understand the complexities, the layers of pain and grief, of the Palestinian diaspora. An important read, recording stories of Palestinian displacement, of family and home connection.
Jamilah is the youngest of four daughters to her parents, one Lebanese, one Palestinian. All living in a village outside Beirut, with their grandmother that fled Palestine during the Nakba. Their Palestinian heritage is something that makes them other, on the fringe, and something they need to keep almost hidden, as tensions across the Middle East intensify.
As older sisters marry and move away, Jamilah's cousin is orphaned and comes to live with the family as another sister. This bond is beautiful, and so tenderly written. My favourite parts of the book.
Jamilah becomes close with a boy her age, as she is reaching her high school years. But the tensions around them all soon have the family in a precarious position again, and they flee to Egypt, leaving everything she knows behind.
More heartache finds them, before an opportunity for a new life presents itself for Jamilah. Although even then, far away from family and all that is familiar, this is not always the shiny new start she imagined for herself.
I am always going to love a family story of four sisters. This is a family saga story, with historical and familial history woven through, making it more meaningful and more generous a read.
Jamilah is the youngest of four daughters to her parents, one Lebanese, one Palestinian. All living in a village outside Beirut, with their grandmother that fled Palestine during the Nakba. Their Palestinian heritage is something that makes them other, on the fringe, and something they need to keep almost hidden, as tensions across the Middle East intensify.
As older sisters marry and move away, Jamilah's cousin is orphaned and comes to live with the family as another sister. This bond is beautiful, and so tenderly written. My favourite parts of the book.
Jamilah becomes close with a boy her age, as she is reaching her high school years. But the tensions around them all soon have the family in a precarious position again, and they flee to Egypt, leaving everything she knows behind.
More heartache finds them, before an opportunity for a new life presents itself for Jamilah. Although even then, far away from family and all that is familiar, this is not always the shiny new start she imagined for herself.
I am always going to love a family story of four sisters. This is a family saga story, with historical and familial history woven through, making it more meaningful and more generous a read.
April 4, 2024
Heartbreaking and powerful, making painfully real the experiences of war and displacement. The complexities of the experience of arriving in “safety” is brought by Saleh into stark relief, with all that that entails leaving behind, as well as the new series of challenges and difficulties with which that might bring the arrivant into contact, and what roles that can play in new cycles of harm — harms embodied in interpersonal relationships and in the inscription into established structures of harm (in particular those of a settler-colonial nation state). Deeply necessary reading.
November 28, 2023
Tells the story of a palestinian girl, Jamilah, and her journey from Lebanon, Egypt and lastly Australia. There were some good bits and I feel like it had a lot of potential. However there were many things I wish were different. The characters were underdeveloped and I wish there was more time in the Australia section of the book. The ending was super rushed which was another let down.
2 stars feels a bit too harsh so I went for 3.
2 stars feels a bit too harsh so I went for 3.
March 15, 2024
A poignant and eye opening story of a families displacement from Palestine. It’s a story of love and loss and finding your way towards Freedom but at what cost?
Deeply moving. I shed a few tears reading the emotional final pages.
This book will stay with me always.
🇵🇸 Free Palestine 🕊️
Deeply moving. I shed a few tears reading the emotional final pages.
This book will stay with me always.
🇵🇸 Free Palestine 🕊️
October 2, 2023
A moving, complex and beautiful tale of family, loss, love and history. I absolutely adored this book. It’s the perfect debut and I am so excited for what Sara M Saleh does next.
October 11, 2023
A beautiful and raw read. Particularly at this time, with all that's happening in Palestine
April 15, 2024
4⭐️
The story follows three generations of women all affected my displacement trauma and grief. Starting with the grandmothers escape from Palestine during the period of mass displacement and “ethnic cleansing” called Nakba where she escapes to Lebanon. Her son Noor, his wife and daughters flee Lebanon to Egypt and their daughter Jamilah seeks a better life in Australia.
The story is loosely based on the authors families displacement from Palestine and beautifully explores themes of war, trauma, grief, racism, treatment of women and identity.
The pacing in the middle felt a bit of to me, but I felt deeply affected by this book.
“Sometimes the homes that matter are the ones we do not live in. They’re the homes left behind, the ones we yearn to return to. And other times, they’re people. The ones we find homes in”.
The story follows three generations of women all affected my displacement trauma and grief. Starting with the grandmothers escape from Palestine during the period of mass displacement and “ethnic cleansing” called Nakba where she escapes to Lebanon. Her son Noor, his wife and daughters flee Lebanon to Egypt and their daughter Jamilah seeks a better life in Australia.
The story is loosely based on the authors families displacement from Palestine and beautifully explores themes of war, trauma, grief, racism, treatment of women and identity.
The pacing in the middle felt a bit of to me, but I felt deeply affected by this book.
“Sometimes the homes that matter are the ones we do not live in. They’re the homes left behind, the ones we yearn to return to. And other times, they’re people. The ones we find homes in”.
December 18, 2023
3.5 🌟
'Jamilah did not know what to make of herself yet – but she knew it was not homemaking or mothering. She appreciated solving mathematical problems using step-by-step formulas, though Lobna said they were an ancient language impossible to decipher. But numbers nestled in parentheses, cosines and sines and tangents, made sense to Jamilah, unlike the events she learned about in history class; the men who started world wars and still she couldn’t tell who’d won.'
'Jamilah did not know what to make of herself yet – but she knew it was not homemaking or mothering. She appreciated solving mathematical problems using step-by-step formulas, though Lobna said they were an ancient language impossible to decipher. But numbers nestled in parentheses, cosines and sines and tangents, made sense to Jamilah, unlike the events she learned about in history class; the men who started world wars and still she couldn’t tell who’d won.'
January 28, 2024
this book made me think about how just one tough decision or struggle generations before had to experience and endure just for me to exist. makes me wonder about all the stories that never reached us.
🍉🔑🤎
🍉🔑🤎
December 20, 2023
a nice story of 3 generations , lebanon, palestine, egypt , australia and lives of women in their homelands and home. themes of displacements and homecomings, the evil of mankind & the kindness found in good neighbours. audiobook
July 23, 2024
An incredible, moving and unforgettable book. It was amazing how the author could convey so much emotion in so few words. It has been a long time since a book moved me as much as this one did. Highly recommended
January 9, 2024
I loved this book. The characters, the setting, the story itself. I also really appreciate the insight and history that I gained from this at the moment in our time.
October 15, 2023
(4.5 stars)
"Is it really home if you've never been?" Published just at the time when we need it most, in Songs for the Dead and the Living, Sara M. Saleh weaves the story of Palestinian dispossession through the lives of generations of women. This is a story of intergenerational trauma, from an ongoing conflict that has seen subsequent generations of the same family having to flee both the Palestinian homeland "weighed down by a thousand melancholies" as well as the places they made homes after it. This includes places like Beirut’s Beit Samra, where the book's protagonist, Jamilah Husseini, was raised. This book really lays bare how difficult it is to heal when the places your grandmother, and now you, remember don't even exist anymore, razed and renamed, "disappeared, bulldozed or blown up so no map, no memory could conjure them."
"For Aishah, life was fractured, the point of breaking distilled into a single, exact moment – when she was dispossessed." Even more cleverly, what this book explains is what it is like to live a generation or two on from the direct trauma of dispossession, honoring your teta's (grandma's) memories. It shows how these memories infiltrate and frame Jamilah's own experience of dispossession during the Lebanese civil war. In poetic prose that doesn't get in the way of narrative storytelling, Saleh explores the situation of Palestinian women. In Lebanon, as second class citizens without the same rights to travel and healthcare, marriage is seen as "a path to being seen and being safe – to surviving a society that refused to make room for them as Palestinians and as women." However even being married to someone from the country you live in doesn't always create safety, as Jamilah's sister Amal discovers: "when a husbands work is frustrating and the world is harsh, and he brings those frustrations and that harshness home."
The other way out is immigration, though the stress of being an outsider in a new country like Australia comes part and parcel with its own challenges and stressors that make domestic and family violence a greater risk. With a nod to the historic dispossession of Indigenous peoples that is also particularly poignant now, Songs for the Dead and the Living was just the book I needed right now. Stories "have a way of bringing back the dead – stories are the dead and the living sharing bread and salt together." I hope you read Sara M Saleh's softly written story to better understand what is is like to have your homeland ripped from under you, and how that horror is transmitted to your daughters, their daughters, and their daughters' daughters, impacting their safety, opportunity and relationships, making them feel alone in the world.
With thanks to NetGalley and Affirm Press for sending me a copy to read.
"Is it really home if you've never been?" Published just at the time when we need it most, in Songs for the Dead and the Living, Sara M. Saleh weaves the story of Palestinian dispossession through the lives of generations of women. This is a story of intergenerational trauma, from an ongoing conflict that has seen subsequent generations of the same family having to flee both the Palestinian homeland "weighed down by a thousand melancholies" as well as the places they made homes after it. This includes places like Beirut’s Beit Samra, where the book's protagonist, Jamilah Husseini, was raised. This book really lays bare how difficult it is to heal when the places your grandmother, and now you, remember don't even exist anymore, razed and renamed, "disappeared, bulldozed or blown up so no map, no memory could conjure them."
"For Aishah, life was fractured, the point of breaking distilled into a single, exact moment – when she was dispossessed." Even more cleverly, what this book explains is what it is like to live a generation or two on from the direct trauma of dispossession, honoring your teta's (grandma's) memories. It shows how these memories infiltrate and frame Jamilah's own experience of dispossession during the Lebanese civil war. In poetic prose that doesn't get in the way of narrative storytelling, Saleh explores the situation of Palestinian women. In Lebanon, as second class citizens without the same rights to travel and healthcare, marriage is seen as "a path to being seen and being safe – to surviving a society that refused to make room for them as Palestinians and as women." However even being married to someone from the country you live in doesn't always create safety, as Jamilah's sister Amal discovers: "when a husbands work is frustrating and the world is harsh, and he brings those frustrations and that harshness home."
The other way out is immigration, though the stress of being an outsider in a new country like Australia comes part and parcel with its own challenges and stressors that make domestic and family violence a greater risk. With a nod to the historic dispossession of Indigenous peoples that is also particularly poignant now, Songs for the Dead and the Living was just the book I needed right now. Stories "have a way of bringing back the dead – stories are the dead and the living sharing bread and salt together." I hope you read Sara M Saleh's softly written story to better understand what is is like to have your homeland ripped from under you, and how that horror is transmitted to your daughters, their daughters, and their daughters' daughters, impacting their safety, opportunity and relationships, making them feel alone in the world.
With thanks to NetGalley and Affirm Press for sending me a copy to read.
October 1, 2023
I can't remember where I heard about this book, but I'm so glad I picked it up at my local library. I devoured this! This is one of those novels where you say to yourself, 'One more chapter, just one more chapter'....nekkminnit ⏳️🫠
This was a beautiful book about a Palestinian - Lebanese family and their struggles of life in limbo as refugees from the moment their matriarch has to leave due to the Nakbar then to the war in their adopted Lebanon
There are bursts of joy interspersed throughout, and the childhood chapters are sweet but yet also heartbreaking in how adult the children need to be while still being so young and innocent.
I think even non Palestinian migrants and their kids (me!) will relate to the longing for finding 'home' and being caught in between. When your parents homelands feel so familiar yet so different at the same time.
A wonderful book by a local SW Sydney writer
This was a beautiful book about a Palestinian - Lebanese family and their struggles of life in limbo as refugees from the moment their matriarch has to leave due to the Nakbar then to the war in their adopted Lebanon
There are bursts of joy interspersed throughout, and the childhood chapters are sweet but yet also heartbreaking in how adult the children need to be while still being so young and innocent.
I think even non Palestinian migrants and their kids (me!) will relate to the longing for finding 'home' and being caught in between. When your parents homelands feel so familiar yet so different at the same time.
A wonderful book by a local SW Sydney writer
November 4, 2023
A really beautiful book, with vibrant, diverse characters that are brought to life organically. There is just as much care taken in historical and cultural details of each city that the story moves through.
This story is essential for so many reasons. It shows that life, grief, family and culture for Palestinians does not just stop at the Nakba. It shows the ways that displaced people are forced to reinvent themselves, to have to negotiate their identities with the places they move to - figure out what parts of who they were they can keep, what parts might need to be hidden. But ultimately, it shows that strength, endurance and resistance often comes in the form of living well and making the most of what you have, despite the circumstances.
I would love to see this book taught in Australian schools and elsewhere around the world.
This story is essential for so many reasons. It shows that life, grief, family and culture for Palestinians does not just stop at the Nakba. It shows the ways that displaced people are forced to reinvent themselves, to have to negotiate their identities with the places they move to - figure out what parts of who they were they can keep, what parts might need to be hidden. But ultimately, it shows that strength, endurance and resistance often comes in the form of living well and making the most of what you have, despite the circumstances.
I would love to see this book taught in Australian schools and elsewhere around the world.
July 28, 2023
‘Is it really home if you’ve never been?’
The story opens in 2007, with a young woman travelling overseas for the first time in twenty years. She is alone.
A shift in time takes us back to 1977 where four sisters are together on a balcony in Beit Samra, with a bird with a broken wing. Jamilah, the youngest, is nine years old. Jamilah knew home as a house above a paint shop on the outskirts of Beirut. But she learned that this was a temporary refuge for her family who are Palestinian refugees. Her family were unable to return to Palestine. In the case of Jamilah’s family, their temporary refuge is destroyed when conflict comes to Beirut. Again, they are forced to flee, this time to Cairo. This is the reality for so many refugees across the world: caught between needing to be safe and wanting to belong, torn between trying to fit in and trying to maintain their own identity.
Over the next few years, Jamilah’s sisters are married, and in 1985 Jamilah is also married, to Ziyad. She and her husband, in search of a better life, move to Australia where Ziyad has a student visa.
Initially life is difficult for Jamilah in Sydney. Her husband exerts strict control over Jamilah, and learning English becomes important as a step towards independence.
Reading this novel, as someone who have never had to seek refuge, I can appreciate that while physical safety is important to every individual, cultural ties are an important part of community and family. Jamilah’s mother (mistakenly) sees safety for her daughters in their marriages and while her father values education, opportunities are scarce. I finished reading with a greater appreciation of the plight of Palestinian refugees in particular, and hope that Jamilah would make her own place in the world.
‘It was strange, how humans filled their mouths with platitudes and pleasantries. It often worked, washing any bitterness away, but never for long.’
Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Affirm Press for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
The story opens in 2007, with a young woman travelling overseas for the first time in twenty years. She is alone.
A shift in time takes us back to 1977 where four sisters are together on a balcony in Beit Samra, with a bird with a broken wing. Jamilah, the youngest, is nine years old. Jamilah knew home as a house above a paint shop on the outskirts of Beirut. But she learned that this was a temporary refuge for her family who are Palestinian refugees. Her family were unable to return to Palestine. In the case of Jamilah’s family, their temporary refuge is destroyed when conflict comes to Beirut. Again, they are forced to flee, this time to Cairo. This is the reality for so many refugees across the world: caught between needing to be safe and wanting to belong, torn between trying to fit in and trying to maintain their own identity.
Over the next few years, Jamilah’s sisters are married, and in 1985 Jamilah is also married, to Ziyad. She and her husband, in search of a better life, move to Australia where Ziyad has a student visa.
Initially life is difficult for Jamilah in Sydney. Her husband exerts strict control over Jamilah, and learning English becomes important as a step towards independence.
Reading this novel, as someone who have never had to seek refuge, I can appreciate that while physical safety is important to every individual, cultural ties are an important part of community and family. Jamilah’s mother (mistakenly) sees safety for her daughters in their marriages and while her father values education, opportunities are scarce. I finished reading with a greater appreciation of the plight of Palestinian refugees in particular, and hope that Jamilah would make her own place in the world.
‘It was strange, how humans filled their mouths with platitudes and pleasantries. It often worked, washing any bitterness away, but never for long.’
Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Affirm Press for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
December 6, 2023
I urge everyone to read this beautiful novel – for me, it was an emotional experience, given what’s happening in the world.
Australian-Palestinian human rights lawyer Sara M Saleh’s debut is an intergenerational story about the Husseinis, a Palestinian-Lebanese family who have curated a precious life for themselves in Beit Samra, a quiet mountainside town near Beirut, Lebanon. There are four sisters: Amal, Layla, Nawal, their beloved orphaned cousin Lobna, and the youngest sister, protagonist Jamilah, an adventurous girl who loves art and photography and has a sweet crush on a local boy.
In 1982, when the Lebanese civil war closes in on them, the Husseini family flee by air to Cairo. The underlying theme of the novel is about home, the loss of, and the longing for it, and how memory and identity are affected by displacement. Grandma Teta Aishah tells her granddaughters of how she fled her village, Lifta, in Palestine in the 1948 Nakba: ‘We had a home, and then we didn’t.’ The stone house Aishah was forced to abandon was beautiful, covered in peach roses, with a majestic lemon tree in the courtyard garden, and surrounded by almond orchards, citrus and fig groves.
The family’s life in the ancient city of Cairo is similarly portrayed in exquisite detail - bustling markets, cosmopolitan beach clubs, shawarma joints and bookstores on leafy streets. Eventually, Jamilah migrates to Australia and when the author holds a mirror up to Australian society the reflection is at times flattering, but also confronting. She doesn’t ignore the problems embedded in Palestinian culture either, showing how a patriarchal culture can shape problematic relationships, and how these issues might be overcome.
This is an Arab family portrayed with all their beauty, strength, vulnerability, and ordinariness. Like everyone, they have dreams and hopes, yet their heritage as Palestinian people means they face challenges and prejudices. To protect them from discrimination, the mother pretends they are Lebanese, for example. The underlying politics and history of the Levant region, the violence, and the peoples’ struggle are accessibly explained.
Food binds this family, and it’s lovingly and mouth-wateringly described: shish barak dumplings; stuffed pastries; spiced dishes and sweet biscuits, roasted nuts, and fragrant treats. Islamic traditions, such as a wedding ceremony, are also evocatively and enchantingly illustrated. This is exquisite, accomplished writing and an important contribution to any conversation on how we can try to make sense of the world as Australian people right now. I hope to see this book on upcoming Miles Franklin and the Stella prize shortlists.
This is a two-book year for author Sara M Saleh, who this week launches a poetry collection The Flirtation of Girls/Ghazal el-Banat (UQP).
Australian-Palestinian human rights lawyer Sara M Saleh’s debut is an intergenerational story about the Husseinis, a Palestinian-Lebanese family who have curated a precious life for themselves in Beit Samra, a quiet mountainside town near Beirut, Lebanon. There are four sisters: Amal, Layla, Nawal, their beloved orphaned cousin Lobna, and the youngest sister, protagonist Jamilah, an adventurous girl who loves art and photography and has a sweet crush on a local boy.
In 1982, when the Lebanese civil war closes in on them, the Husseini family flee by air to Cairo. The underlying theme of the novel is about home, the loss of, and the longing for it, and how memory and identity are affected by displacement. Grandma Teta Aishah tells her granddaughters of how she fled her village, Lifta, in Palestine in the 1948 Nakba: ‘We had a home, and then we didn’t.’ The stone house Aishah was forced to abandon was beautiful, covered in peach roses, with a majestic lemon tree in the courtyard garden, and surrounded by almond orchards, citrus and fig groves.
The family’s life in the ancient city of Cairo is similarly portrayed in exquisite detail - bustling markets, cosmopolitan beach clubs, shawarma joints and bookstores on leafy streets. Eventually, Jamilah migrates to Australia and when the author holds a mirror up to Australian society the reflection is at times flattering, but also confronting. She doesn’t ignore the problems embedded in Palestinian culture either, showing how a patriarchal culture can shape problematic relationships, and how these issues might be overcome.
This is an Arab family portrayed with all their beauty, strength, vulnerability, and ordinariness. Like everyone, they have dreams and hopes, yet their heritage as Palestinian people means they face challenges and prejudices. To protect them from discrimination, the mother pretends they are Lebanese, for example. The underlying politics and history of the Levant region, the violence, and the peoples’ struggle are accessibly explained.
Food binds this family, and it’s lovingly and mouth-wateringly described: shish barak dumplings; stuffed pastries; spiced dishes and sweet biscuits, roasted nuts, and fragrant treats. Islamic traditions, such as a wedding ceremony, are also evocatively and enchantingly illustrated. This is exquisite, accomplished writing and an important contribution to any conversation on how we can try to make sense of the world as Australian people right now. I hope to see this book on upcoming Miles Franklin and the Stella prize shortlists.
This is a two-book year for author Sara M Saleh, who this week launches a poetry collection The Flirtation of Girls/Ghazal el-Banat (UQP).
January 13, 2024
Songs For The Dead And The Living is an absolutely beautiful, heartfelt book. This is a multi-generational story which centres on Jamilah, the youngest daughter of a Lebanese mother and Palestinian father. When the story begins the family is living in Beirut, where her pregnant grandmother fled during the Nakba. Although Lebanon is safe (safer at any rate) the family are treated poorly, they don't have the same education or career opportunities, or access to healthcare. At the begining of the novel Jamilah's sister Amal is getting married, not because she loves her new husband, because it's expected or she wants a family, but because she believes it's a ticket to freedom. For some of her sister marriage is freedom and for others it's a prison, either way Jamilah isn't sure marriage is what she wants however she doesn't have a lot of choices. Marriage is one of the few options available to the girls. Soon war comes to Beirut and the family flee to Cairo via Damascus, again a place which is safer and technically Palestinians are welcomed however the reality is somewhat different.
This is an emotional read, the novel shows the journey of loss and grief, the inability to properly grieve when your present and future is in turmoil, and the sadness which comes with celebrations. Jamilah struggles to establish her own identity amongst the conflict and continuous migration and struggles to set her own path to the future. Through the novel the family are treated in polarising ways, either with contempt, disgust, fear at the "drama's that follows Palestinians", or with kindness, empathy, and love - when Jamilah arrives in Sydney her neighbours help her navigate her new country, access English classes, and help her when she needs it the most. There is a lot of history and action packed into this book which can feel overwhelming until you realise these events all happened, this never-ending entropy is still happening. A beautiful and moving must-read.
This is an emotional read, the novel shows the journey of loss and grief, the inability to properly grieve when your present and future is in turmoil, and the sadness which comes with celebrations. Jamilah struggles to establish her own identity amongst the conflict and continuous migration and struggles to set her own path to the future. Through the novel the family are treated in polarising ways, either with contempt, disgust, fear at the "drama's that follows Palestinians", or with kindness, empathy, and love - when Jamilah arrives in Sydney her neighbours help her navigate her new country, access English classes, and help her when she needs it the most. There is a lot of history and action packed into this book which can feel overwhelming until you realise these events all happened, this never-ending entropy is still happening. A beautiful and moving must-read.
August 7, 2023
𝚂𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚖𝚊𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚖𝚘𝚜𝚝 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚜 𝚠𝚎 𝚍𝚘 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚕𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚒𝚗. 𝚃𝚑𝚎𝚢'𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚜 𝚕𝚎𝚏𝚝 𝚋𝚎𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚍, 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚜 𝚠𝚎 𝚢𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚗 𝚝𝚘 𝚛𝚎𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚗 𝚝𝚘. 𝙰𝚗𝚍 𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎𝚜, 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢'𝚛𝚎 𝚙𝚎𝚘𝚙𝚕𝚎. 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚘𝚗𝚎𝚜 𝚠𝚎 𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚍 𝚑𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚜 𝚒𝚗.
This debut novel is a compelling and evocative coming of age/intergenerational story about Jamilah and her family's experience as Palestinian refugees, forced to flee Lebanon during the war.
She writes beautifully about a family overcoming loss of home, plans and dreams. A story of people unable to be true to their identity outside of their home in order to survive; forced to make life decisions they never imagined they would have to make, not knowing what the consequences may be; and testing their resilience and faith in themselves and others.
Not only was I invested in Jamilah and her family's migration story, but it is rich with detail about the cultural history of Palestine. This book invites you to know more about Palestinian artists, intellectuals and activists, without detracting from Jamilah's story and her journey to Western Sydney. There is a careful balance needed for a story steeped in fact, helping the reader understand a complex historical context, while still keeping them interested.
I couldn't put this book down and I didn't want it to end. Saleh's writing shows the power of fiction and its importance in bearing witness for those people who have passed and keeping the memories alive for the future. Saleh is a masterful storyteller!
Thank you to @netgalley and @affirmpress for the ebook in return for an honest review. And to @instasaranade for a wonderful book. 5⭐️💫
This debut novel is a compelling and evocative coming of age/intergenerational story about Jamilah and her family's experience as Palestinian refugees, forced to flee Lebanon during the war.
She writes beautifully about a family overcoming loss of home, plans and dreams. A story of people unable to be true to their identity outside of their home in order to survive; forced to make life decisions they never imagined they would have to make, not knowing what the consequences may be; and testing their resilience and faith in themselves and others.
Not only was I invested in Jamilah and her family's migration story, but it is rich with detail about the cultural history of Palestine. This book invites you to know more about Palestinian artists, intellectuals and activists, without detracting from Jamilah's story and her journey to Western Sydney. There is a careful balance needed for a story steeped in fact, helping the reader understand a complex historical context, while still keeping them interested.
I couldn't put this book down and I didn't want it to end. Saleh's writing shows the power of fiction and its importance in bearing witness for those people who have passed and keeping the memories alive for the future. Saleh is a masterful storyteller!
Thank you to @netgalley and @affirmpress for the ebook in return for an honest review. And to @instasaranade for a wonderful book. 5⭐️💫
December 17, 2023
.....📚 𝑩𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝑹𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘 📚.....
Songs For The Dead And The Living by Sara M. Saleh is a story of family, displacement, survival, and the importance of culture. It crosses generations and countries through one families journey from Palestine to Lebanon, then Egypt, and finally to Australia. "When the ground beneath your feet is always shifting, how can you ever know where you belong?"
As Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, young Jamilah Husseini and her family try to blend in and belong whilst holding on to their culture and identity. Jamilah's grandmother was forced to flee Palestine during the Nakba, pregnant and alone she was left to raise her son in Lebanon, far from their family homeland. When conflict comes to Beirut, the Husseini family must flee their home again and leave behind those they love, as they make their way to Cairo and even further away from their homeland. Jamilah will eventually have to choose between holding on to everything she knows or pursuing a life of her own in another foreign land.
"Is it really home if you've never been?"
This was a beautifully written book that holds the fragility of family in the wake of war, the impact of intergenerational trauma, the hope and resilience of people, and the love it takes to overcome great loss. Understanding the stories of refugees is so important, and this story highlights the immence importance of cultural safety and how isolating it is to be living outside of your country and community. Such an important read given the ongoing conflict in Palestine. Definitely recommend ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5/5).
Songs For The Dead And The Living by Sara M. Saleh is a story of family, displacement, survival, and the importance of culture. It crosses generations and countries through one families journey from Palestine to Lebanon, then Egypt, and finally to Australia. "When the ground beneath your feet is always shifting, how can you ever know where you belong?"
As Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, young Jamilah Husseini and her family try to blend in and belong whilst holding on to their culture and identity. Jamilah's grandmother was forced to flee Palestine during the Nakba, pregnant and alone she was left to raise her son in Lebanon, far from their family homeland. When conflict comes to Beirut, the Husseini family must flee their home again and leave behind those they love, as they make their way to Cairo and even further away from their homeland. Jamilah will eventually have to choose between holding on to everything she knows or pursuing a life of her own in another foreign land.
"Is it really home if you've never been?"
This was a beautifully written book that holds the fragility of family in the wake of war, the impact of intergenerational trauma, the hope and resilience of people, and the love it takes to overcome great loss. Understanding the stories of refugees is so important, and this story highlights the immence importance of cultural safety and how isolating it is to be living outside of your country and community. Such an important read given the ongoing conflict in Palestine. Definitely recommend ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5/5).
May 23, 2024
Jamilah’s home was a house above a paint shop on the outskirts of Beirut, with her large, chaotic, loving family. But she soon learned that as Palestinian refugees, her family's life in Lebanon was precarious, as they tried to blend in while retaining their identity at the same time. When conflict came to Beirut and the family was forced to flee to Cairo, it was yet another escape, and another slip further away from Palestine, the homeland to which they couldn’t return.
First of all, I connected well with this story. Coming from a multi-generational migrant family across multiple countries myself, a lot of the points in the book hit true (and in some places a bit too close to home) such as Jamilah’s family logic that it’d be better for the children to ‘escape’ for a better future even when they ended up living far from each other.
It was heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time to see how Jamilah’s family still tried to have consistency, tradition and ‘normal’ family life even when they had to keep moving, and money had become an issue.
I hope this book will open up more stories about Palestinian migrants and how they’re in constant search of ’home’. And I hope the polarisations and hates will dissipate overall and be replaced by human empathy.
See my bookstagram review.
First of all, I connected well with this story. Coming from a multi-generational migrant family across multiple countries myself, a lot of the points in the book hit true (and in some places a bit too close to home) such as Jamilah’s family logic that it’d be better for the children to ‘escape’ for a better future even when they ended up living far from each other.
It was heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time to see how Jamilah’s family still tried to have consistency, tradition and ‘normal’ family life even when they had to keep moving, and money had become an issue.
I hope this book will open up more stories about Palestinian migrants and how they’re in constant search of ’home’. And I hope the polarisations and hates will dissipate overall and be replaced by human empathy.
See my bookstagram review.
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June 3, 2024this felt like a really important book to be reading right now. following a young palestinian girl and her family as they are driven from their home in lebanon to egypt, this book deals with a whole load of really complex issues about identity - in nationalism, religion, language, culture, patriarchy and tradition.
unfortunately i don’t think on a critical level this was a particularly strong novel - it read quite YA-like in prose yet dealt with some definitely adult subject matter, and i found that too often the characters were used as mouthpieces for a short history lesson, or the narrator (a young girl) dived off into describing some quite complex geopolitical background in a way that didn’t seem to fit with the rest of the writing style. admittedly this was always going to be a difficult task - especially as undoubtedly many readers would not be that familiar with much of the historical background relevant to the story.
i think i’d rate this a 3, but i’m choosing to leave it unrated on goodreads as not to drag down the average rating, as i think it is a valuable read beyond whether it is critically a good novel - it is a very realistic portrait of what real people in the palestinian diaspora have experienced - and continue to experience and gives an empathetic and valuable insight into the struggles of palestinians over the last century of conflict.
unfortunately i don’t think on a critical level this was a particularly strong novel - it read quite YA-like in prose yet dealt with some definitely adult subject matter, and i found that too often the characters were used as mouthpieces for a short history lesson, or the narrator (a young girl) dived off into describing some quite complex geopolitical background in a way that didn’t seem to fit with the rest of the writing style. admittedly this was always going to be a difficult task - especially as undoubtedly many readers would not be that familiar with much of the historical background relevant to the story.
i think i’d rate this a 3, but i’m choosing to leave it unrated on goodreads as not to drag down the average rating, as i think it is a valuable read beyond whether it is critically a good novel - it is a very realistic portrait of what real people in the palestinian diaspora have experienced - and continue to experience and gives an empathetic and valuable insight into the struggles of palestinians over the last century of conflict.
July 28, 2024
As Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, Jamilah’s family live carefully, without drawing attention to themselves - when Beirut becomes too dangerous, they must flee, taking them even further from a home they don’t remember and cannot return to…
This is an accessible Palestinian diaspora coming-of-age story - I’d have welcomed a little more depth, but Jamilah’s experiences growing up in Beirut and later Cairo were interesting to read about. That feeling of believing you belong but discovering you’re actually an outsider really came through, as did the lasting connection to a lost home that passes through generations, even those with no memory or experience of Palestine. Unfortunately, the story hasn’t proved all that memorable though.
I was rather disappointed by the end, which felt rushed. The final part could easily have been longer as I would have liked more of Jamilah’s story after the point where the book leaves off - as it was, the ending felt slightly contrived and the story rather truncated. Although we do get a bit of information in the epilogue, I’d have been interested in following Jamilah as she navigated her new circumstances, with more of the details of her later life.
A solid and accessible coming-of-age Palestinian diaspora story of belonging, exile and family.
April 18, 2024
3.5/5 ⭐️
A close-to-home story for many, I am certain. Songs for the Dead and the Living is a harrowing story of war, interfaith and intercultural interactions and disputes, and the lengths humans will go to in order to find themselves and stand firm and proud in their identity.
Finding little pieces of my own Lebanese culture nestled within the book's pages was a delight (and gave me a selfish sense of pride when my broken Arabic was enough to understand the bilingual dialogue), but it evoked conflicted emotions regarding the treatment of Palestinians even within the Levant during the 70s and 80s; this book was a history lesson in itself. While I was sometimes left lost with sudden time skips and topic changes, I found myself rooting for the Husseini family and watching on, helpless, as little decisions mushroomed and forever changed the direction of the novel.
This was a wonderful read that opens the eyes to the side of Middle Eastern conflict not many Western nations seem to be aware of - the very real, very human, civilians of the region.
A close-to-home story for many, I am certain. Songs for the Dead and the Living is a harrowing story of war, interfaith and intercultural interactions and disputes, and the lengths humans will go to in order to find themselves and stand firm and proud in their identity.
Finding little pieces of my own Lebanese culture nestled within the book's pages was a delight (and gave me a selfish sense of pride when my broken Arabic was enough to understand the bilingual dialogue), but it evoked conflicted emotions regarding the treatment of Palestinians even within the Levant during the 70s and 80s; this book was a history lesson in itself. While I was sometimes left lost with sudden time skips and topic changes, I found myself rooting for the Husseini family and watching on, helpless, as little decisions mushroomed and forever changed the direction of the novel.
This was a wonderful read that opens the eyes to the side of Middle Eastern conflict not many Western nations seem to be aware of - the very real, very human, civilians of the region.
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