Susan Abulhawa appeared as a guest on a popular morning news and local interest program, GoodDAY Philaelphia (FOX-29) Wednesday, November 28, 2007. She was interviewed by co-anchor John Anderson and introduced by Sheinelle Jones. Susan Abulhawa discussed the Annapolis Summit from the Palestinian perspective and in the context of other struggles for human rights, particularly the anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa. Susan Abulhawa is an award winning Palestinian author (THE SCAR OF DAVID) and founder of Playgrounds for Palestine.

Susan Abulhawa appears at CROSSING BORDER FESTIVAL in The Hague

Saturday 24 november

OXFAM NOVIB / PEN AWARDS

For the last five years Oxfam Novib and the PEN Emergency Fund have presented five awards at the Crossing Border Festival to journalists and authors that as a consequence of their writing have been persecuted, imprisoned, tortured or worse. The presentations are in the most part symbolic, as many of the recipients are either in hiding or prison. In many countries, writers, journalists, poets and columnists are imprisoned and often without trial. This is because they’ve written something that the local authorities don’t agree to. They’re denied access to a lawyer and often face torture. Frequently their families are fully unaware of their plight or even whether they’re still alive. Oxfam Novib and the PEN Emergency Fund annually present five awards (of around € 2500) to writers whom suffered a great deal for their writing. From 14.00 – 16.00 [2 to 4 p.m.] on Saturday 24 November, there will be a special programme with performances including:Tthe presentationing of the Awards by the mayor of The Hague, Wim Deetman, an interview with Susan Abulhawa and a musical performance from LaXula. Tickets cost € 5, and are available from festival tent Cuatro at the festival tent's box office, telephone reservations possible on 070-3462355

http://www.degeus.be/boekpagina.php?id=1293

http://scarofdavid.com/

Susan Abulhawa's SCAR OF DAVID receives 2007 National Best Book Award

USABookNews.com

Fiction & Literature: Historical Fiction Winner:
The Scar of David by Susan Abulhawa
Journey Publications, LLC
ISBN: 9772078-8-6

Susan Abulhawa, author of THE SCAR OF DAVID, was announced today by USA Book News as the 2007 Winner of the Fiction & Literature - Historical Fiction category in this year's National Best Book Awards. Last month Ms. Abulhawa was a featured presenter at The Wisconsin Book Festival and the Dutch edition of the book was released by Het litteken van David-DeGeus with a presale of 10,000 copies, including 9,000 to Oxfam-Novib. Oxfam is a global organization dedicated to confronting social injustice wherever it is found.

The Scar of David Synopsis

The Scar of David is historical fiction about a Palestinian family from the village of Ein Hod, which was emptied of its inhabitants by the newly formed state of Israel in 1948. It is told in the first person by Amal, who is born into that family in a UN-administered refugee camp in Jenin, where her family would eventually die waiting, or fighting, to return to their beloved Palestine.

Set in lap of one of the 20th century's most intractable political conflicts, this novel weaves through history, friendship, love, frayed identity, terrorism, exhaustion of the spirit, surrender, and courage. Three massacres and two major wars provide five corners to this novel:

1. Sabra and Shatila, Southern Lebanon, 1982;
2. US embassy bombing, Beirut, 1983;
3. Refugee camp of Jenin, West Bank, 2002;
4. The Naqbe, Mandate Palestine, 1948; and
5. The Six Day War, Middle East, 1967.

During the family's eviction from their ancestral village, Amal's brother Ishmael is lost in the mayhem of people fleeing for their lives. Just a toddler at the time, Ishmael is raised by a Jewish family and grows up as David, an Israeli soldier. During the 1967 war, Amal's eldest brother, Yousef, comes face to face with David, his brother the Jew. Yousef recognizes his brother by a prominent scar across David's face. The title of this story takes its name from this scar, and assumes other layers of meaning as it is told.

The end is the beginning: terrible suffering packaged by Western press into perfidious sound bites like the "Middle East Conflict" and "War on Terrorism."

But through the course of this story, a would-be suicide bomber is given a name, face and life of a man pushed to in comprehensible limits; an Arab girl of pious and humble beginnings escapes her destiny and lives the "American Dream," which her soul cannot bear; an Israeli man becomes tangled in a truth he cannot reconcile, and his identity can find no repose but in the temporary anesthetic of alcohol; and a nation of destitute refugees, living under the general label of "terrorists," emerges in the context of an unredeemed history.

This story reveals Palestinians in the fullness of their humanity as they teeter on the margins of life against a cruel military occupation, a corrupt leadership, an indifferent international community, and the undaunted will to take their place among the nations as human beings, worthy of human rights and the basic dignity of heritage.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:

http://www.scarofdavid.com
markbmiller (at) aol.com

Dutch Edition: http://www.degeus.be/boekpagina.php?id=1293
Italian Edition: http://www.wuz.it/Articolo/tabid/77/id/506/Default.aspx
Other translations to follow in 2008