There were a lot of things about this that I liked but I don’t think overall I “got” it. Isabella Hammad’s writing is beautiful and I loved reading about modern day Palestine. There were so many layers of tension as the characters were going about their lives, trying to do the most basic things and being impacted by Israeli surveillance along the way. The back and forth of if they would be able to put on the play and the underlying themes of art surviving under occupation were excellent. I loved the quiet, understated quality that the story had with how small the scope of the book was.

Ultimately, I just didn’t feel connected to the protagonist, Sonia. I found many of the characters that she interacted with fascinating, like Wael and Mariam and Haneen, but Sonia felt kind of dry to me for the majority of the book. I was only interested in her when she was contending with the inconsistencies she had in memories of her family, but otherwise found her internal monologue a bit tedious.

I think this book is necessary and I’m glad it exists. I’m sure it will work well for a lot of people, depending on how much you enjoy the protag. Definitely pick it up if the summary interests you.

Also, the audiobook narrator does a great job and her voice is GORGEOUS, but I would recommend reading a physical copy because there are parts of the book that have dialogue and action cues written like a play and listening to those parts lessened some of the impact for me. I flipped back and forth from the audio and physical (like I usually do, when I can) and went back to those parts to read them without the audio, which made those scenes work much better.