Amazon.com Review
An Amazon Best Book of April 2019: You could label The Parisian as historical fiction, but it seems silly to limit it that way. This is just a great novel, and Isabella Hammad is an ambitions, sensitive, and abundantly talented writer. The Parisian is the story of Midhat Kamal. We first meet him in 1914 Marseilles, while he is on his way to Montpelier to attend medical school. He is also about to fall in love for the first time. Within a year, he is studying in Paris, absorbing the culture; but as a Palestinian living in France, he is always an outsider. Eventually, Midhat returns to his hometown of Nablus, where his father, a wealthy textile merchant, rules his days, and where Britain now rules the land. Midhat must answer to his father’s expectations at the same time that he is trying to make his way in a changing Palestine—and still there are tendrils that reach back to France. The Parisian is, almost unbelievably, a debut novel—a moving personal story set against a sweeping historical backdrop—and Isabella Hammad is an exciting new voice in literature. --Chris Schluep, Amazon Book Review Review
Praise for The Parisian
WINNER OF THE 2019 PALESTINE BOOK AWARD
A New York Times Notable Book of 2019
One of Amazon's Best Books of 2019
One of Vogue's Best Novels of 2019
An April IndieNext Selection
One of Lit Hub's Ultimate Best Books of 2019
One of Lit Hub's 50 Best Contemporary Novels Over 500 Pages
“Dazzling… A deeply imagined historical novel with none of the usual cobwebs of the genre… The Parisian has an up-close immediacy and stylistic panache… that are all the more impressive coming from a London-born writer still in her 20s… Exquisite.”—New York Times Book Review
“Assured and captivating… Ms. Hammad’s acute evocation of place and personality ensures that we are never lost… This agile writer sets us firmly in place, fixing our attention on intersecting lives.”—Wall Street Journal
“Reminiscent of Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient and Sebastian Faulks’s Birdsong, 27-year-old Isabella Hammad’s epic debut novel surpasses both in its scope.”—New York
“Stunning…a lush rendering of Palestinian life a century ago under the British mandate and a sumptuous epic about the enduring nature of love.”—Vogue
"Hammad uses the features of historical novels to cut through the familiar dichotomies of West and Near East, placing her protagonist in a rich web of families, political intrigues, and cultural exchanges, and subtly reconfiguring the literary tropes of 'home' and 'abroad.'"—New Yorker
“Epic… Because the book takes place in the complicated time and spaces that it does, the narrative grapples with sociopolitical concerns as well as it does the intimate, human ones. It sweeps you along.”—Vanity Fair
“[A] lush historical epic with echoes of Stendhal.”—O Magazine
“Lavish, leisurely and immersive… The Parisian comes across as both old-fashioned and modern-minded…. Ms. Hammad's command of the broad picture and the filigree detail alike makes this paradoxical tone succeed. One of Midhat's French friends disdains the small stuff since he “was an architect, not a carpenter.” Ms. Hammad knows, and triumphantly shows, that a novelist of vision must be both.”—Economist
“Remarkably accomplished… Hammad is a natural storyteller. She sustains tension and suspends revelation skillfully, and interweaves character and theme, the global and the local, with the assurance of a much more experienced author. The writing is deeply humane, its wide vision combined with poised restraint… The Parisian teems with riches – love, war, betrayal and madness – and marks the arrival of a bright new talent.”—Guardian
“One of the most ambitious first novels to have appeared in years… Written in soulful, searching prose, it’s a jam-packed epic… Hammad is a natural social novelist with an ear for lively dialogue as well as an ability to illuminate psychological interiority… Hammad is a writer of startling talent – and The Parisian has the rhythm of life.”—Observer
“Hammad has an exquisite control on her subject: this is precise writing, measured, and careful… Much of the pleasure of the book is to be found in Hammad’s often strikingly clear, original imagery … She also provides many canny shifts in focus, from a cinematic, establishing wide-shots of a location, deftly sketched, to zooming in on the tiniest, most intimate detail …It is Hammad’s sustaining of both perspectives, the minutiae that make up an individual life and the macro political upheavals that change a country forever, that makes The Parisian so impressive.”—Independent
"[A] dazzling debut... every page a vibrant pleasure to read." —LitHub
“Isabella Hammad shows rare maturity, both in her marshaling of a huge cast of characters and in her ability to illuminate such a politically charged period of history without didacticism or literary showboating.”—Mail on Sunday
“Sumptuous and sharply observed – an old-school novel to lost yourself in.”—Metro
“It's hard to believe this sweeping, sophisticated historical novel is Isabella Hammad's debut — Hammad is truly a talent to watch.”—Refinery29
“Hammad is an ambitious, sensitive, and abundantly talented writer… An exciting new voice in literature.”—Omnivoracious
“A triumph… A big, bold love story nestled within a powerful drama about the centuries-old Palestinian struggle for independence.”—Shelf Awareness (starred review)
“In her exceptional debut, Hammad taps into the satisfying slow-burn style of classic literature with a storyline that captures both the heart and the mind….Richly textured prose drives the novel’s spellbinding themes of the ebb and flow of cultural connections and people who struggle with love, familial responsibilities, and personal identity. This is an immensely rewarding novel that readers will sink into and savor.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“An assured debut novel… closely observed and elegantly written.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“A hugely accomplished historical sweep of a book… a novel of immense skill and confidence.”—Guardian
“The Parisian is a gripping historical novel, a poignant romance, and a revelatory family epoch. Above all, it is a generous gift. There is a kind of joy that can hold not only pleasure, but struggle, and even sadness. This novel tells that kind of joyful story, and evokes that kind of joy in the reader.”—Jonathan Safran Foer
“The Parisian is a sublime reading experience: delicate, restrained, surpassingly intelligent, uncommonly poised and truly beautiful. It is realism in the tradition of Flaubert and Stendhal – everything that happens feels not so much imagined as ordained. That this remarkable historical epic should be the debut of a writer in her mid-twenties seems impossible, yet it's true. Isabella Hammad is an enormous talent and her book is a wonder.”—Zadie Smith
“The Parisian is extraordinary—wise, ambitious, and lavishly rewarding. With luminous prose and rare compassion, Isabella Hammad offers her readers an absorbing story of war and identity, of love and independence, of hope and history. It’s an astonishing novel, heralding the arrival of a major talent.”—Bret Anthony Johnston
“The Parisian is a lushly imagined, beautifully written, expansive powerhouse of a debut. Isabella Hammad is a great new voice.”—Nathan Englander
"An exquisite, intricate and wise novel. I was utterly gripped from the first page until the last. This sweeping, historical epic marks the arrival of a wonderfully gifted author. Isabella Hammad is a marvel and The Parisian is an unforgettable read."—Irenosen Okojie
“With masterful lyricism and unflinching insight, The Parisian captures the personal passion and political violence of a nascent nation’s struggle for independence. Hammad has written a profound and intoxicating epic, brimming with unexpected, vivid imagery and unforgettable characters. Hers is a fresh voice of the first order.”—Bradford Morrow
“A model of what the short story can do…[A] most ingenious and openhearted work.”—David Gates on Isabella Hammad’s “Mr. Can’aan,” winner of the 2018 Plimpton Prize
About the Author
Isabella Hammad was born in London. Her writing has appeared in Conjunctions, The Paris Review, The New York Times and elsewhere. She was awarded the 2018 Plimpton Prize for Fiction and a 2019 O. Henry Prize. Her first novel The Parisian (2019) won a Palestine Book Award, the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a Betty Trask Award from the Society of Authors in the UK. She was a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honoree, and has received literary fellowships from MacDowell and the Lannan Foundation. She is currently a fellow at the Columbia University Institute for Ideas and Imagination in Paris.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
There was one other Arab onboard the ship to Marseille. His name was Faruq al-Azma, and the day after leaving port in Alexandria he approached Midhat at breakfast, with a plate of toast in one hand and a string of amber prayer beads in the other. He sat, tugged at the cuffs of his shirt, and started to describe without any introduction how he was returning from Damascus to resume his teaching post in the language department of the Sorbonne. He had left Paris at the outbreak of war but after the Miracle of the Marne was deter-mined to return. He had grey eyes and a slightly rectangular head.
“Al-Baris.” He sighed. “It is where my life is.”
To young Midhat Kamal, this statement was highly suggestive. In his mind a gallery of lamps directly illuminated a dance hall full of women. He looked closely at Faruq’s clothes. He wore a pale blue three-piece suit, and an indigo tie with a silver tiepin in the shape of a bird. A cane of some dark unpainted wood leaned against the table.
“I am going to study medicine,” he said. “At the University of Montpellier.”
“Bravo,” said Faruq.
Midhat smiled as he reached for the coffeepot. Muscles he had not known were tense began to relax.
“This is your first visit to France,” said Faruq.
Midhat said nothing, assenting.
