A blackly funny account of everyday life in Ramallah and refreshingly different from most writing on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Sharon and My Mother-in-Law describes Suad Amiry's life on the West Bank from the early 1980s to the first decade of the new millennium.
Vividly evoking her neighbourhood and her moving family history, Amiry creates a fascinating account of her attempts to live a normal life in an insane situation: from the impossibility of acquiring gas masks during the first Gulf War to her dog acquiring a Jerusalem passport when thousands of Palestinians couldn't. During the Israeli invasion of Ramallah in March 2002, Amiry's feisty ninety-two-year-old mother-in-law came to live with them, and Amiry's diary of this time is at the heart of this wonderful book about the absurdity (and agony) of life in the Occupied Territories.
"* 'A refreshingly funny account of the absurdities of everyday life in occupied territories' Stephanie Merritt, Observer * 'Amiry's acute ear for gossip makes it almost a kind of Palestinian Desperate Housewives' Christina Lamb, The Sunday Times * 'Spirited, thought-provoking and shockingly entertaining' Hephzibah Anderson, Daily Mail Critic's Choice * 'Not only is it really funny but it also shows the kind of courage, vision and humanity needed to bring peace to the Middle East' Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues".
Surprisingly funny, and refreshingly different from any other writings on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, "Sharon and My Mother-in-Law", describes Suad Amiry's experience of living on the West Bank from the early eighties to the present. Amiry tells us about the life and gossip of her neighbourhood in Ramallah, her moving family history, and the struggle to live a normal life in an insane situation; from the impossibility of acquiring gas masks during the first Gulf War to her dog acquiring a Jerusalem Passport when thousands of Palestinians couldn't. The book contains a diary Amiry kept during the Israeli invasion of Ramallah in March 2002, when her feisty 92-year-old mother-in-law came to live with them. Suad Amiry has written a wonderful and funny book about the absurdity (and agony) of life in the Occupied Territories.
