The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem (translated by Sinan Antoon)

Publisher – Syracuse University Press

Published – Out Now

Price – £16.50 paperback £10.39 Kindle eBook

What if all the Palestinians in Israel simply disappeared one day? What would happen next? How would Israelis react? These unsettling questions are posed in Azem's powerfully imaginative novel. Set in contemporary Tel Aviv forty eight hours after Israelis discover all their Palestinian neighbors have vanished, the story unfolds through alternating narrators, Alaa, a young Palestinian man who converses with his dead grandmother in the journal he left behind when he disappeared, and his Jewish neighbor, Ariel, a journalist struggling to understand the traumatic event. Through these perspectives, the novel stages a confrontation between two memories. Ariel is a liberal Zionist who is critical of the military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, but nevertheless believes in Israel's project and its national myth. Alaa is haunted by his grandmother's memories of being displaced from Jaffa and becoming a refugee in her homeland. Ariel's search for clues to the secret of the collective disappearance and his reaction to it intimately reveal the fissures at the heart of the Palestinian question.

As I get older, I think all cities have ghosts. But I’m not talking about the ones paranormal tours love to promote. I mean the shades of the past. In my early forties both my schools no longer exist; my first workplace has gone and many of the places my friends went at the weekend too. I can see their traces, but actual places no longer exist. Speak to older family members and I’m sure they too have talked about a place that you can’t see for yourself. Places hold our histories within them and knowing that they aren’t there anymore is an unusual feeling part nostalgia and part loss. Imagine though that your past was taken away more forcibly – there are parts of the world where you are classed as no longer welcome; your way of life smashed away and what does that mean for future generations? In the haunting yet brilliant The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem (translated by Sinan Antoon) we explore the current situation of Jaffa also known as Tel Aviv when a inexplicable event shows the imbalances in the land.

One day all the Palestinian bus drivers; field workers and shop owners don’t appear as expected the next morning. People suspect a general strike no one was aware of but evidence soon mounts in the form of empty houses with food in them that everyone has just vanished very suddenly in the night. Is this a Israeli Government action; a secret attack in waiting or something else? No one knows and the Israeli populace starts to try and work out what happened. One of these is Ariel a liberal Zionist with permissive views on many things but thinks Israel has to be firm under attack. He had a Palestinian friend Alaa who although they quarrelled often spoke for hours at a time. Ariel finds Alaa’s diary and reads the entries up to the disappearance trying to understand if any clues can be found to explain things.

This is a brilliant read but I’m going to say upfront if you expect firm answers as to what happened you may be disappointed – its up to the reader to make sense of things and have their own theories. What you will find though is an exploration of loss, grief, displacement, and trauma all delivered quietly and yet unflinching and powerfully. In Alaa’s story we explore his family’s changing circumstances as he deals with the passing away of his beloved Grandmother and to whom he writes his diary entries nor in his forties trying to make sense of his life and world. This novel explores how people in the run up to 1967 saw their homes and families splintered and those who remained saw their lives changed – not allowed back in their original homes. Azem through a concentration on one family who saw the land as Jaffa to give us a glimpse of a world now gone for good. But that loss and the impact on future generations is ever present is felt throughout Alaa’s thoughts. His mother who saw her father leave and find a new family elsewhere; his father who became a famous surgeon but not always the present father. I found this a really good way of understanding how Palestinians living in Israel were lived and reconciled their past and present lives and really appreciated how Azem gave us a short glimpse of so many characters and their lives to give a sense of a community that still lives not just one now gone forever.

With Ariel’s scenes we see life from the Jewish perspective. Ariel lives for debate; embracing life be it at parties; his local pubs and often working his own thoughts as someone who lost his father in military action and his own military service as a youth and what he saw. He though despite his friendship with Alaa still feels the overall policy while not always well executed is right. As the story progresses, we see TV clips and Ariel’s own international articles explaining the current situation and for him it is all about security. There is little concern for where millions of people may be more on what this now means for Israel be it the eyes of its neighbours or suddenly the opportunity that vast empty patches of settlements now offer. I find it darkly amusing that Israeli life stops as it realises many of the people who fed and clothed them are no longer around but then horrified at how easily people are seen to shrug and see what profit this could mean.

What strikes me most about his story is how two people in one city can have such different worldviews. Tel Aviv we are told is known as the White City due to its buildings’ colour and seen as a more permissive and rowdy place to Jerusalem but for some locals it is always Jaffa with street signs that were painted over to hide their original Palestinian names; family homes now empty and many people hiding secrets from their families of darker times. It’s a sombre yet critical tone observing how there is little change now happening and like Alaa people realising their world often seems now quite diminished as he is haunted by his past.

The Book of Disappearance is a well recommended read. Not for saying this is what needs to happen but giving the reader an understanding into a history and two cultures that many of us will be aware of. That sense of loss and grief makes it a haunting read, but I certainly think watching the news I can now understand why people want change. I think this is very much one of those stories that will stay with me for years to come.