Gate of the Sun

Gate of the Sun is one of the most acclaimed novels about the so-called “question of Palestine.”

Although fictional, it hews closely to real life; the author Elias Khoury, a Lebanese writer, was informed by the extensive time he spent talking to Palestinian refugees in various camps. The book is set in Shatila refugee camp in Lebanon and has an epic scope, weaving together different characters’ experiences of displacement and exile and spanning six decades from the 1930s to the 1990s.

Along the way, we engage with some of the most pivotal moments in recent Palestinian history: the original displacement… show more.

Through the fantastical, magical reconstructions of the adventures of a supposed Palestinian liberation hero, we get a history of Palestine and the Palestinians from the 1936 Arab revolt to almost today. Khoury, a Lebanese Christian novelist and journalist, has himself been closely involved in this history, as a public commentator and interviewer of figures much like the supposed hero Yunis—who, we will see, may or may not have performed the exploits for which he is renowned. Khoury is a brilliant writer, both as an analyst of complex political relations and as a conveyor of very convincing-sounding dialogue, which is itself… show more.