Journal of an Ordinary Grief [Paperback]

Winner of the 2011 PEN Translation Prize

A collection of autobiographical essays by one of the greatest poets to come from Palestine.

Indispensable reading for anyone interested in the roots and ramifications of the Israeli and Palestinian conflict. Muhawi's own prose and meticulous footnotes are impeccable. An inspired and scholarly piece of research.
—Words Without Borders

“Every beautiful poem is an act of resistance,” writes Mahmoud Darwish. In these probing essays, Darwish, a voice of the Palestinian people and one of the most transcendent poets of his generation, interrogates the experience of occupation and the meaning of liberation.
 
Calling upon myth, memory, and language, these essays delve into the poet’s experience of house arrest, his encounters with Israeli interrogators, and the periods he spent in prison.
 
Meditative, lyrical, and rhythmic—Darwish gives absence a vital presence in these linked essays. Journal is a moving and intimate account of the loss of homeland and, for many, of life inside the porous walls of occupation—no ordinary grief.Winner of PEN Translation Prize 2011

There is no finer Arab poet for English readers to start with. —Times Literary Supplement

Very impressive. —Juan Goytisolo

This collection of essays is one of the most effective, useful, and deeply moving witnessings of a historical tragedy I have read. The writing has an unsurpassed freshness, power, and awe exactly because it is poetry that happens to have justified lÕ