Touch

By Adania Shibli

Touch centers on a girl, the youngest of nine sisters in a Palestinian family. In the singular world of this novella, this young woman’s everyday experiences resonate until they have become as weighty as any national tragedy. The smallest sensations compel, the events of history only lurk at the edges--the question of Palestine, the massacre at Sabra and Shatila. In a language that feels at once natural and alienated, Shibli breaks with the traditions of modern Arabic fiction, creating a work that has been and will continue to be hailed across literatures. Here every ordinary word, ordinary action is a small stone dropped into water: of inevitable consequence. We find ourselves mesmerized one quiet ripple at a time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Clockroot Books
• Release date: Nov 10, 2013
• ISBN: 9781623710453

Adania Shibli

Adania Shibli was born in Palestine in 1974. Her first two novels appeared in English with Clockroot Books as Touch (tr. Paula Haydar, 2010) and We Are All Equally Far From Love (tr. Paul Starkey, 2012). She was awarded the Young Writer’s Award by the A. M. Qattan Foundation in 2002 and 2004. Minor Detail was shortlisted for the National Book Award for Translated Literature in 2020, and longlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2021.

Book preview

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Reviews for Touch

[jeniwren_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have been reading some interesting fiction in translation from the Middle East. Women writers from this region are sadly scarce and this one is by a Palestinian author who has twice been awarded the Young Writer's Award- Palestine. Touch is a slight novella at only 72 pages and told from the viewpoint of a small girl , the youngest of nine girls in a Palestinian family. She details the minutia of daily life where the book is divided into five sections, Colors, Silence, Movement, Language and The Wall. We are given hints of the historical events that loom larger beyond her everyday existence in that we only know as much as she does. Lyrical and beautiful prose which gently ponders the connections between a young child and her family.

[detailmuse · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Like a pouch of snapshots dropped and scattered, the 33 vignettes in this very short novella about a young Palestinian girl rely on the reader to put them in order and make meaning. Their spareness is riveting, and Shibli’s extraordinary language (with Paula Haydar’s translation from the Arabic) opens up the universe, seeding the subconscious and bringing forth details and a story beyond what is written on the page (for me, reminiscent of Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying). I loved it and have it about half-understood; I so look forward to reading it again.

[kidzdoc_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Adania Shibli is a Palestinian author who was recently recognized at the Hay Beirut39 Literature Festival, which featured 39 Arab authors under 39 years of age. An accomplished novelist and writer of short stories and essays, she has recently completed a PhD at the University of East London.Touch is a novella about a young Palestinian girl, which consists of five themed sections of prose poetry: colors, silence, movement, language, and the wall. Although tragedy, sadness and isolation are present throughout the narrative, there are only a couple of fleeting references to the Palestinian struggle, which seemingly have little if any impact on the life of the girl. The writing is beautiful and evocative, and this slim book is best read slowly, attentively and repeatedly for fuller enjoyment and appreciation.This is a typical excerpt from one of the sections:The mother sat on a rocking chair that rocked back and forth until its movement faded away and she would start it again. The little girl was standing in front of her on the edge of the veranda, holding onto its iron frame, while her eyes were fixed to the sky, holding onto the edge of a cloud. Thus her journey would start through the space over the veranda, with the mother behind her, until the cloud disappeared beyond the horizon. The girl would turn her head, then look straight up again and wait for the next cloud.She suddenly got dizzy, so she sat on the edge of the veranda and pushed her head between the railings, but they did not allow it to pass through. Her head stopped just before the ears, and so did the spinning inside it. But everywhere else in the world, in the fields stretched out before her, the spinning continued. Millions of blades of grass were moving in the same direction as the clouds. The softness of the hair of that green sea was similar to the softness of the sun's rays the moment they spilled through the clouds.Highly recommended.