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Minor Detail
Minor Detail begins during the summer of 1949, one year after the war that the Palestinians mourn as the Nakba – the catastrophe that led to the displacement and expulsion of more than 700,000 people – and the Israelis celebrate as the War of Independence. Israeli soldiers capture and rape a young Palestinian woman, and kill and bury her in the sand. Many years later, a woman in Ramallah becomes fascinated to the point of obsession with this ‘minor detail’ of history. A haunting meditation on war, violence and memory, Minor Detail cuts to the heart of the Palestinian experience of dispossession, life under occupation, and the persistent difficulty of piecing together a narrative in the face of ongoing erasure and disempowerment.
144 pages, Paperback
First published June 19, 2017
About the author
Adania Shibli
19 books668 followersAdania Shibli (عدنية شبلي) 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 4,745 reviews
June 13, 2024
this is probably the most stunning exploration i've encountered of a fact of modern life that haunts me. inundated as we are with horrible news, we keep it all at a distance, our daily functioning relying on our shutting out that every murder, act of colonization, ongoing genocide is affecting or destroying or ending human lives as complicated and important as our own.
but the chance that a "minor detail" will strike us, as it strikes our protagonist when she encounters the story of the rape and murder of a palestinian woman by israeli soldiers that happened 25 years to the day before her birth, causes it all to collapse.
the connections it draws between our main character and the girl this violence happens to is also a disturbing, timely reminder of that same message. we are separated from those who are suffering only by minor details, in feeling and in chance.
this is a haunting and terrible story, and it's one whose twin in horror is occurring every day before our very eyes.
the least we can do is watch and feel and cry out no.
bottom line: free palestine.
but the chance that a "minor detail" will strike us, as it strikes our protagonist when she encounters the story of the rape and murder of a palestinian woman by israeli soldiers that happened 25 years to the day before her birth, causes it all to collapse.
the connections it draws between our main character and the girl this violence happens to is also a disturbing, timely reminder of that same message. we are separated from those who are suffering only by minor details, in feeling and in chance.
this is a haunting and terrible story, and it's one whose twin in horror is occurring every day before our very eyes.
the least we can do is watch and feel and cry out no.
bottom line: free palestine.
January 3, 2024
”sometimes it’s inevitable for the past to be forgotten, especially if the present is no less horrific.”🍉
March 30, 2021
Now Longlisted for Booker International Prize 2021
3.5-4*
Minor Detail is another intriguing entry in Fitzcarraldo catalogue of hits. The small press from London is probably my favorite right now and you will see me review a lot more books published by them this year because I decided to subscribe.
The short novella is divided in two parts. The first half describes a few days in the life of an Israeli platoon delegated to survey the Egyptian border soon after the proclamation of the state of Israel. The episode culminates with the discovery and murder of a group of unarmed nomadic Arabs and the rape and killing of the only female that was found with them. The 2nd part is written in 1st person and is the story of a young woman who becomes obsessed by the crime carried out many years before. She tries to find more details about what happened but she is forced to deal with all the limitations that are imposed by the Israelis towards Palestinians (border checks, basses, walls, suspicion).
After I finished, I closed my Kindle and stayed there silent and baffled. I was touched by the book, I thought it held power but I could not say why. Not immediately at least. Now, two weeks after I finished I think I have a better idea but still I am not entirely sure what the attraction is. The writing is simple, full of minor details, as the titles says. For example, the daily habits of the platoon commander are presented in painful details, the way he dresses, washes and cleans his festering wound is repeated over and over again. However, instead of annoying me, it made the characters more vivid and it somehow transported me in 1949’s Middle East desert. A number of the repetitive motifs from the 1st part are transported in the 2nd part. The barking of a dog, the water, the border, the sand, and all those “minor details” contributed to connecting the two parts.
The tone of the novel was matter of fact, it did not directly judge. However, I felt the use of a festering bite wound as a sort of excuse for the poor judgment made by the commander a bit strange. I think those crimes happen without needing an excuse. It is the way of the war to somehow dehumanize the enemy and commit despicable acts towards it, acts that one wouldn’t normally even consider doing. While I am writing this, I wonder if the sepsis that was spreading in the soldier’s body is not a symbol of the spreading of hate towards the Palestinians.
3.5-4*
Minor Detail is another intriguing entry in Fitzcarraldo catalogue of hits. The small press from London is probably my favorite right now and you will see me review a lot more books published by them this year because I decided to subscribe.
The short novella is divided in two parts. The first half describes a few days in the life of an Israeli platoon delegated to survey the Egyptian border soon after the proclamation of the state of Israel. The episode culminates with the discovery and murder of a group of unarmed nomadic Arabs and the rape and killing of the only female that was found with them. The 2nd part is written in 1st person and is the story of a young woman who becomes obsessed by the crime carried out many years before. She tries to find more details about what happened but she is forced to deal with all the limitations that are imposed by the Israelis towards Palestinians (border checks, basses, walls, suspicion).
After I finished, I closed my Kindle and stayed there silent and baffled. I was touched by the book, I thought it held power but I could not say why. Not immediately at least. Now, two weeks after I finished I think I have a better idea but still I am not entirely sure what the attraction is. The writing is simple, full of minor details, as the titles says. For example, the daily habits of the platoon commander are presented in painful details, the way he dresses, washes and cleans his festering wound is repeated over and over again. However, instead of annoying me, it made the characters more vivid and it somehow transported me in 1949’s Middle East desert. A number of the repetitive motifs from the 1st part are transported in the 2nd part. The barking of a dog, the water, the border, the sand, and all those “minor details” contributed to connecting the two parts.
The tone of the novel was matter of fact, it did not directly judge. However, I felt the use of a festering bite wound as a sort of excuse for the poor judgment made by the commander a bit strange. I think those crimes happen without needing an excuse. It is the way of the war to somehow dehumanize the enemy and commit despicable acts towards it, acts that one wouldn’t normally even consider doing. While I am writing this, I wonder if the sepsis that was spreading in the soldier’s body is not a symbol of the spreading of hate towards the Palestinians.
November 27, 2023
Now Shadow Jury winner of the International Booker Prize although the official jury did not even shortlist it.
I read this novella due to its longlisting for the 2021 International Booker Prize – it is published by Fitzcarraldo, a small UK press with significant success in this prize, in pre-publishing Noble Prize winners and in the Republic of Consciousness Prize.
It is translated by Elisabeth Jacquette – a translation process that the author has implied in interviews was challenging
The book is based on a real incident – a war crime which was investigated 40+ years later, using newly unclassified documents, by the liberal/left-of-centre Israeli paper Haaretz here:
https://www.haaretz.com/1.4746524
This is also I think a book both easily – given it is very short - and best read in a single sitting - as that way the overall effect of the book – and in particular the resonances between the two parts (the first set in the Negev Desert in the Summer of 1949 at the end of the Palestine War/Israeli War of Independence/The Nakba – effectively a retelling of the war crime; the second in the modern day in Ramallah – effectively an investigation of the crime) – come into effect. Without that I think the first part in particular can seem very weak and oddly repetitive.
The first section is told in a very distanced third person by the commander of a group of Israeli soldiers patrolling the Negev Desert “their primary mission during their presence here, in addition to demarcating the southern border with Egypt and preventing anyone from penetrating it, was to comb the southwest part of the Negev and cleanse it of any remaining Arabs “.
The narrative thrust of this section is that the soldiers come across and massacre a group of what turn out to be unarmed Bedouins and their camels, and take the sole survivor (a girl) back to their camp – initially the Commander orders them to leave her untouched and use her as a cook, but ultimately she is gang raped (including by the Commander) and then massacred.
Much - if not all - of the "major detail" in this section - the actual atrocity itself - is lifted almost entirely from what actually occurred as set out in the Haaretz article.
However what is really important in this section to the novel is what seems to be the more minor details in four respects.
First of all the Commander is suffering from fever caused by some form of bite – in what I think seems to be a metaphor for the insidious effect of the occupation on Israeli military society – starting with the behaviour of the troops in 1949 but continuing to the present day.
Secondly the actual narrative though could be said to be “rinse, lather, repeat” as it is dominated by the commander’s systematic washing of himself (and the resulting soap suds) in a series of almost identical paragraphs.
And thirdly there are a number of other images and what seem like incidental (or minor) details.
Most noticably the smell of the girl’s petrol-deloused hair, but wider smells of sweat, sounds of dogs barking, an obsession with crushing spiders, a coiled hose, grass pulled up by its roots, lost camels, thorn acacia and terebinth trees and cane grass, a phrase “Man, not the tank, shall prevail”, the “heft of a mirage” and so on.
And fourthly the date that the incident took place is repeated time and time again.
The second section is in a first person by a Palestinian girl with I think (and other reviews seem to agree) some form of autism – albeit whether this is induced more by the conditions of the occupation than any medical condition is unclear. In particular she has an issue with borders “as soon as I see a border, I either race towards it and leap over, or cross it stealthily, with a step”
And in this section she crosses two sets of borders – those set up by the Israel’s to confine the Palestinians and the borders between past and present.
She also, due to her obsessive nature, focuses on minor details, and when she comes across the article in Haaretz, she focuses on one thing “a detail that I really quite minor when compared to the incident’s major details, which can only be described as tragic” – the fact that the incident took place exactly 25 years before her own birth (the fourth of my minor details).
She decides, with the aid of a borrowed pass, to go to investigate the incident by travelling – crossing physical borders between the different Zones - first to a museum and then to where she believes it took place (the Haaretz article explains why this involves going to two different places) in an attempt to understand what the girl suffered – and so crossing the second border, to the past.
As she travels – the importance to the novella of the other minor details in the first section become clear.
The various images recur in different ways.
The girl, filling up a car for the first time, spills petrol on herself, the smell of which she cannot get rid of despite a detailed attempt to clean herself with soap suds in an almost identical ritual to the commander.
And the other images occur more symbolically.
A fable of a lost camel is used to illustrate her own ability to “focus intently on the most minor details … as the only way to arrive at the truth”.
The obsession of the commander with actual spiders occurs more mentally as “a spider .. spinning its threads round me, tightening them into something like a barrier … the barrier of fear” (linking also to the various barriers erected at checkpoints).
The grass pulled up by its roots is used as a metaphor for the girl for the way that incidents can be linked over many years “you think you’ve got rid of it entirely, only for grass of the exact same species to grow back in the same spot a quarter of a century later” – which both shows the way in which the girl is effectively reliving the experiences of her murdered predecessor and acts as I think as a metaphor of course for the on-going conflict between Israel and the displaced Palestinians.
The coiled hose (the hose key to the first section and in the Haaretz article) and the slogan reappear to signal to us (and the girl) that she has found the site of the atrocity.
And when the thorn acacia and terebinth trees and cane grass appear – we suddenly realise how the book will end and how the past and future will intersect – something also signalled by a mirage that both starts the first section and ends the other.
Overall this is a powerful book and I think a real contender for the prize.
I read this novella due to its longlisting for the 2021 International Booker Prize – it is published by Fitzcarraldo, a small UK press with significant success in this prize, in pre-publishing Noble Prize winners and in the Republic of Consciousness Prize.
It is translated by Elisabeth Jacquette – a translation process that the author has implied in interviews was challenging
The text came with an added burden for the translator because the language had been formulated by a specific experience—in this case, the ways it was violated by colonization and oppression. In Arabic, this linguistic experience needed a lot of space and precision—attention to what is written and what is intentionally not written. We spoke about a process of continuous exchange, but I don’t think Jaquette expected the extent to which this was the case. She did the best she could to work with that, and the editors also tried to address these multiple layers.
The book is based on a real incident – a war crime which was investigated 40+ years later, using newly unclassified documents, by the liberal/left-of-centre Israeli paper Haaretz here:
https://www.haaretz.com/1.4746524
This is also I think a book both easily – given it is very short - and best read in a single sitting - as that way the overall effect of the book – and in particular the resonances between the two parts (the first set in the Negev Desert in the Summer of 1949 at the end of the Palestine War/Israeli War of Independence/The Nakba – effectively a retelling of the war crime; the second in the modern day in Ramallah – effectively an investigation of the crime) – come into effect. Without that I think the first part in particular can seem very weak and oddly repetitive.
The first section is told in a very distanced third person by the commander of a group of Israeli soldiers patrolling the Negev Desert “their primary mission during their presence here, in addition to demarcating the southern border with Egypt and preventing anyone from penetrating it, was to comb the southwest part of the Negev and cleanse it of any remaining Arabs “.
The narrative thrust of this section is that the soldiers come across and massacre a group of what turn out to be unarmed Bedouins and their camels, and take the sole survivor (a girl) back to their camp – initially the Commander orders them to leave her untouched and use her as a cook, but ultimately she is gang raped (including by the Commander) and then massacred.
Much - if not all - of the "major detail" in this section - the actual atrocity itself - is lifted almost entirely from what actually occurred as set out in the Haaretz article.
However what is really important in this section to the novel is what seems to be the more minor details in four respects.
First of all the Commander is suffering from fever caused by some form of bite – in what I think seems to be a metaphor for the insidious effect of the occupation on Israeli military society – starting with the behaviour of the troops in 1949 but continuing to the present day.
Secondly the actual narrative though could be said to be “rinse, lather, repeat” as it is dominated by the commander’s systematic washing of himself (and the resulting soap suds) in a series of almost identical paragraphs.
And thirdly there are a number of other images and what seem like incidental (or minor) details.
Most noticably the smell of the girl’s petrol-deloused hair, but wider smells of sweat, sounds of dogs barking, an obsession with crushing spiders, a coiled hose, grass pulled up by its roots, lost camels, thorn acacia and terebinth trees and cane grass, a phrase “Man, not the tank, shall prevail”, the “heft of a mirage” and so on.
And fourthly the date that the incident took place is repeated time and time again.
The second section is in a first person by a Palestinian girl with I think (and other reviews seem to agree) some form of autism – albeit whether this is induced more by the conditions of the occupation than any medical condition is unclear. In particular she has an issue with borders “as soon as I see a border, I either race towards it and leap over, or cross it stealthily, with a step”
And in this section she crosses two sets of borders – those set up by the Israel’s to confine the Palestinians and the borders between past and present.
She also, due to her obsessive nature, focuses on minor details, and when she comes across the article in Haaretz, she focuses on one thing “a detail that I really quite minor when compared to the incident’s major details, which can only be described as tragic” – the fact that the incident took place exactly 25 years before her own birth (the fourth of my minor details).
She decides, with the aid of a borrowed pass, to go to investigate the incident by travelling – crossing physical borders between the different Zones - first to a museum and then to where she believes it took place (the Haaretz article explains why this involves going to two different places) in an attempt to understand what the girl suffered – and so crossing the second border, to the past.
As she travels – the importance to the novella of the other minor details in the first section become clear.
The various images recur in different ways.
The girl, filling up a car for the first time, spills petrol on herself, the smell of which she cannot get rid of despite a detailed attempt to clean herself with soap suds in an almost identical ritual to the commander.
And the other images occur more symbolically.
A fable of a lost camel is used to illustrate her own ability to “focus intently on the most minor details … as the only way to arrive at the truth”.
The obsession of the commander with actual spiders occurs more mentally as “a spider .. spinning its threads round me, tightening them into something like a barrier … the barrier of fear” (linking also to the various barriers erected at checkpoints).
The grass pulled up by its roots is used as a metaphor for the girl for the way that incidents can be linked over many years “you think you’ve got rid of it entirely, only for grass of the exact same species to grow back in the same spot a quarter of a century later” – which both shows the way in which the girl is effectively reliving the experiences of her murdered predecessor and acts as I think as a metaphor of course for the on-going conflict between Israel and the displaced Palestinians.
The coiled hose (the hose key to the first section and in the Haaretz article) and the slogan reappear to signal to us (and the girl) that she has found the site of the atrocity.
And when the thorn acacia and terebinth trees and cane grass appear – we suddenly realise how the book will end and how the past and future will intersect – something also signalled by a mirage that both starts the first section and ends the other.
Overall this is a powerful book and I think a real contender for the prize.
November 16, 2023
reading is resistance
February 3, 2024
devastating
May 8, 2020
During the forced occupation of Palestine by Israeli forces in 1948, a young Palestinian woman is raped, killed, and buried by soldiers in the Negev desert. Decades later, a Palestinian writer risks her life trying to obtain more information about this ‘minor detail’ in the wider history of an atrocity. These two narratives are melded together in Adania Shibli’s stunningly scrupulous novel, Minor Detail. Despite being a mere 112 pages, Shibli worked the best part of a decade to hone her novel down to a political narrative so sharp and so streamlined that not a single word seems out of place. The result is a novel that should be heralded as not only a masterpiece, but as a landmark in political fiction. Shibli is surely a shoo-in for the Nobel.
May 15, 2024
‘there are some who consider this way of seeing, which is to say, focusing intently on the most minor details, like dust on the desk or fly shit on a painting, as the only way to arrive at the truth and definitive proof of its existence.’
Minor Detail by Adania Shibli is a haunting and deeply affecting novel. Set in Palestine, the novel delicately explores the echoes of history and the enduring impact of violence on both individuals and communities.
The story unfolds in two parts, the first in 1949 during the Israeli occupation, and the second in present day, following a young woman's obsession with a minor detail in a wartime massacre.
The novel is an exploration of memory, trauma, and the search for meaning in the face of overwhelming loss. Through meticulous attention to detail and a keen sense of empathy, Shibli creates a narrative that is deeply personal, a meditation on the enduring legacy of violence and the elusive nature of justice.
Shibli's prose is both lyrical and precise, drawing the reader into a world haunted by the ghosts of the past.
My Highest Recommendation.
Minor Detail by Adania Shibli is a haunting and deeply affecting novel. Set in Palestine, the novel delicately explores the echoes of history and the enduring impact of violence on both individuals and communities.
The story unfolds in two parts, the first in 1949 during the Israeli occupation, and the second in present day, following a young woman's obsession with a minor detail in a wartime massacre.
The novel is an exploration of memory, trauma, and the search for meaning in the face of overwhelming loss. Through meticulous attention to detail and a keen sense of empathy, Shibli creates a narrative that is deeply personal, a meditation on the enduring legacy of violence and the elusive nature of justice.
Shibli's prose is both lyrical and precise, drawing the reader into a world haunted by the ghosts of the past.
My Highest Recommendation.
April 19, 2021
MAJOR REASONS FOR LOVING MINOR DETAIL
Contrary to the cake and the potion with encouraging inscriptions found by Alice on her way to Wonderland, The Minor Detail (2020) by Adania Shibli was shouting to me: Don’t read me! The words from the blurb: war, rape, kill, bury flashed like warning signals, given my current state of mind. Nonetheless, Roman Clodia’s excellent review helped me to get my courage up to do a bungee jump far out of my reader’s comfort zone. I survived.
All the horrid things from the blurb do happen in the novella but the way Adania Shibli tells her story is incomparable to any books about war I have already read. She proves that you do not have to massacre readers’ senses to deliver an impactful pacifist message. An emotional punch can be packed with delicate touches. The subtlety of The Minor Detail… The poetry of things you would never suspect to be lyrical… The strange sensation when you feel the story getting under your skin and you can’t help it… The beat your heart skips when you read the last page of The Minor Detail... The time you need to return to reality… The feeling of calm completeness and intangible, untouchable literary magic at the same time...
The structure of this novella is based on dichotomy and contrast. To my mind, the conflict in the book should not be limited to Israel and Palestine only, although it is the easiest and most obvious interpretation. The crime described by Adania Shibli could have happened - and happened - and still happens - in different places, at different times. Besides, there are more ‘wars’ going on in this book: people-nature, men-women, history-present, minor-major.
If you compare the two parts of the novella, you will find the difference in style striking. The first part with a male protagonist is factual, concrete, naturalist, devoid of emotions, cold. The second one with a female protagonist and narrator is passionate, oneiric, chaotic, confusing. The narrator mentions her inability to identify borders between things, and evaluate situations rationally and logically. Maybe the 'military' part was supposed to show what war does to people: it turns soldiers into automats, incapable of any feelings aside from physical pain? The connection between the two parts is built on recurring symbols which appear like rhythmical mirror reflections: for example a dog, a hose, camels, a girl. The symmetry of Minor Detail left me speechless.
If I had to select one painting, which encapsulates my emotions and thoughts provoked by this book, so hard to express with mere words, it would be The Wounded Angel (1903) by Hugo Simberg. There are many images that portray the duel: truth, goodness and beauty versus violence but this one speaks straight to my heart. Just like Minor Detail.
The Wounded Angel (1903), Hugo Simberg.
Contrary to the cake and the potion with encouraging inscriptions found by Alice on her way to Wonderland, The Minor Detail (2020) by Adania Shibli was shouting to me: Don’t read me! The words from the blurb: war, rape, kill, bury flashed like warning signals, given my current state of mind. Nonetheless, Roman Clodia’s excellent review helped me to get my courage up to do a bungee jump far out of my reader’s comfort zone. I survived.
All the horrid things from the blurb do happen in the novella but the way Adania Shibli tells her story is incomparable to any books about war I have already read. She proves that you do not have to massacre readers’ senses to deliver an impactful pacifist message. An emotional punch can be packed with delicate touches. The subtlety of The Minor Detail… The poetry of things you would never suspect to be lyrical… The strange sensation when you feel the story getting under your skin and you can’t help it… The beat your heart skips when you read the last page of The Minor Detail... The time you need to return to reality… The feeling of calm completeness and intangible, untouchable literary magic at the same time...
The structure of this novella is based on dichotomy and contrast. To my mind, the conflict in the book should not be limited to Israel and Palestine only, although it is the easiest and most obvious interpretation. The crime described by Adania Shibli could have happened - and happened - and still happens - in different places, at different times. Besides, there are more ‘wars’ going on in this book: people-nature, men-women, history-present, minor-major.
If you compare the two parts of the novella, you will find the difference in style striking. The first part with a male protagonist is factual, concrete, naturalist, devoid of emotions, cold. The second one with a female protagonist and narrator is passionate, oneiric, chaotic, confusing. The narrator mentions her inability to identify borders between things, and evaluate situations rationally and logically. Maybe the 'military' part was supposed to show what war does to people: it turns soldiers into automats, incapable of any feelings aside from physical pain? The connection between the two parts is built on recurring symbols which appear like rhythmical mirror reflections: for example a dog, a hose, camels, a girl. The symmetry of Minor Detail left me speechless.
If I had to select one painting, which encapsulates my emotions and thoughts provoked by this book, so hard to express with mere words, it would be The Wounded Angel (1903) by Hugo Simberg. There are many images that portray the duel: truth, goodness and beauty versus violence but this one speaks straight to my heart. Just like Minor Detail.
The Wounded Angel (1903), Hugo Simberg.
October 21, 2024
Most novels get shorter the more you read them; some novels get longer, as if the story grows as you read; and there are some novels that can never be finished. No matter how long you close the book, it will always follow you, haunt you, like an indomitable ghost. This novel, by Palestinian novelist Adania Shibli - Minor Detail is such a book that exudes a nightmarish atmosphere and has a powerful aftereffect.
For a whole week after reading it, the desert under the scorching Middle Eastern sun, armed soldiers, small olive groves, and Arab women in black robes…. scenes from the book kept flashing in my mind; I could almost hear distant barking, women's cries, and sharp gunshots. My bright mood was also infected by the ubiquitous oppressive, anxious, and terrifying atmosphere in the book, becoming somewhat dazed and depressed. Really to my surprise that this short novel had such an emotional impact。
The story revolves around the death of an unnamed Arab girl. The whole book is divided 2 two parts. The first part tells the story of a group of Israeli soldiers who, in 1948, raped and murdered an Arab girl they had captured while on patrol in the desert bordering Egypt. The second part tells the story of an Arab woman, the narrator of the second part, who sees a news report about this incident twenty-five years later. Driven by a force she herself finds inexplicable, she is determined to risk her life to explore more details about the incident.
The story is not complicated. But the way Shibli writes it seems to me to be quite subversive. She seems to deliberately subvert the most basic rule of conventional writing, which is to always focus on conflict and plot. The whole book does not give much space to the core event of the story, but instead, like the title of the book, fills page after page with trivial details. For example, the first part actually spends two whole pages describing in excruciating detail, with the precision of a 4K high-definition camera, the process of the leading perpetrator, an Israeli soldier, shaving: how he pours water from the water tank into the basin, how he applies shaving cream, how he carefully shaves (starting from the chin, then the cheeks), and how the shaved stubble floats in the water basin... These details are puzzling and frustrating to read because they seem to have nothing to do with the main plot.
The reading experience of this part is like watching a 50-minute documentary about a factory that has exploded, where for 45 minutes, the camera focuses on things like graffiti on the factory walls, close-ups of machine parts, workers' meals, and logos on safety helmets - all sorts of inexplicable things.
Shibli doesn't write this way because she doesn't know anything about writing. The fact that a book with such a fragmented plot can still keep me reading and leave me with a long-lasting impression is a testament to the fact that she is actually challenging a higher level of writing (and succeeding). Even when the violence suddenly appears near the end of the book, her writing is restrained to the point of being cold.
But the narrator never "intervenes" in the events throughout. She is like a pure observer and recorder, without any comments or emotions.
All the seemingly boring and meaningless details, when combined with the final "detail" of the Arab girl's death, suddenly reveal their meaning. Only then do I realize that the unnamed girl's rape and murder, so random and so casual (the perpetrator, an Israeli soldier, let his subordinates decide how to deal with the girl, to let her go or to execute her, by voting), is like an insignificant detail in the perpetrator's daily life. From the perspective of the Israeli soldier who commits the violence but has no emotional fluctuations, the girl's death is not even as important to him as a wound caused by a spider bite on his leg.
The second part of the book, is like a ghost story. Twenty-five years after the unnamed Arab girl was shot dead by the Israeli army in the desert, another Arab woman sets out to find more details about the scene of the crime. However, what drives her is not a sense of responsibility or justice. It's another detail: she shares the same birthday as the murdered girl. Many details in the second part echo the first part: the dogs that block the way and the military dogs of the Israeli soldiers in the first part, the soap bubbles in the bath in the hotel and the scene of the Arab girl being forced to bathe in the first part, the camels encountered in the mountains and the camels shot by the Israeli soldiers in the first part, the endless fog, and of course, the sound of gunfire...
So the Arab woman in the second part reads like a reincarnation of the Arab girl in the first part. They were born on the same day, which is almost a clear indication. Else, how else can you explain the inexplicable fear and anxiety that has kept her awake? She cannot forget the pain of her past life. She sets out to revisit the scene of the crime that day, perhaps to confirm her memory. What awaits her is another string of fiery bullets. Just like the painful memories of violence inflicted on the soul, there is only reincarnation, never ending.
Crazy!
And Shibil devotes a lot of description to crossing the border, as a Palestinian, to enter the "Israel Defense Forces History Museum" to see another narrative.
If you wonder what it's like for a woman to describe such a grand theme, she actually provides a minor perspective, a detail, but it's shockingly huge. Without using those serious words, but rather specific details, physical invasion, the psychological activities of crossing checkpoints, it's too specific.
For some reasons, I just like it.
3.8 / 5 stars
For a whole week after reading it, the desert under the scorching Middle Eastern sun, armed soldiers, small olive groves, and Arab women in black robes…. scenes from the book kept flashing in my mind; I could almost hear distant barking, women's cries, and sharp gunshots. My bright mood was also infected by the ubiquitous oppressive, anxious, and terrifying atmosphere in the book, becoming somewhat dazed and depressed. Really to my surprise that this short novel had such an emotional impact。
The story revolves around the death of an unnamed Arab girl. The whole book is divided 2 two parts. The first part tells the story of a group of Israeli soldiers who, in 1948, raped and murdered an Arab girl they had captured while on patrol in the desert bordering Egypt. The second part tells the story of an Arab woman, the narrator of the second part, who sees a news report about this incident twenty-five years later. Driven by a force she herself finds inexplicable, she is determined to risk her life to explore more details about the incident.
The story is not complicated. But the way Shibli writes it seems to me to be quite subversive. She seems to deliberately subvert the most basic rule of conventional writing, which is to always focus on conflict and plot. The whole book does not give much space to the core event of the story, but instead, like the title of the book, fills page after page with trivial details. For example, the first part actually spends two whole pages describing in excruciating detail, with the precision of a 4K high-definition camera, the process of the leading perpetrator, an Israeli soldier, shaving: how he pours water from the water tank into the basin, how he applies shaving cream, how he carefully shaves (starting from the chin, then the cheeks), and how the shaved stubble floats in the water basin... These details are puzzling and frustrating to read because they seem to have nothing to do with the main plot.
The reading experience of this part is like watching a 50-minute documentary about a factory that has exploded, where for 45 minutes, the camera focuses on things like graffiti on the factory walls, close-ups of machine parts, workers' meals, and logos on safety helmets - all sorts of inexplicable things.
Shibli doesn't write this way because she doesn't know anything about writing. The fact that a book with such a fragmented plot can still keep me reading and leave me with a long-lasting impression is a testament to the fact that she is actually challenging a higher level of writing (and succeeding). Even when the violence suddenly appears near the end of the book, her writing is restrained to the point of being cold.
But the narrator never "intervenes" in the events throughout. She is like a pure observer and recorder, without any comments or emotions.
All the seemingly boring and meaningless details, when combined with the final "detail" of the Arab girl's death, suddenly reveal their meaning. Only then do I realize that the unnamed girl's rape and murder, so random and so casual (the perpetrator, an Israeli soldier, let his subordinates decide how to deal with the girl, to let her go or to execute her, by voting), is like an insignificant detail in the perpetrator's daily life. From the perspective of the Israeli soldier who commits the violence but has no emotional fluctuations, the girl's death is not even as important to him as a wound caused by a spider bite on his leg.
The second part of the book, is like a ghost story. Twenty-five years after the unnamed Arab girl was shot dead by the Israeli army in the desert, another Arab woman sets out to find more details about the scene of the crime. However, what drives her is not a sense of responsibility or justice. It's another detail: she shares the same birthday as the murdered girl. Many details in the second part echo the first part: the dogs that block the way and the military dogs of the Israeli soldiers in the first part, the soap bubbles in the bath in the hotel and the scene of the Arab girl being forced to bathe in the first part, the camels encountered in the mountains and the camels shot by the Israeli soldiers in the first part, the endless fog, and of course, the sound of gunfire...
So the Arab woman in the second part reads like a reincarnation of the Arab girl in the first part. They were born on the same day, which is almost a clear indication. Else, how else can you explain the inexplicable fear and anxiety that has kept her awake? She cannot forget the pain of her past life. She sets out to revisit the scene of the crime that day, perhaps to confirm her memory. What awaits her is another string of fiery bullets. Just like the painful memories of violence inflicted on the soul, there is only reincarnation, never ending.
Crazy!
And Shibil devotes a lot of description to crossing the border, as a Palestinian, to enter the "Israel Defense Forces History Museum" to see another narrative.
If you wonder what it's like for a woman to describe such a grand theme, she actually provides a minor perspective, a detail, but it's shockingly huge. Without using those serious words, but rather specific details, physical invasion, the psychological activities of crossing checkpoints, it's too specific.
For some reasons, I just like it.
3.8 / 5 stars
Read
April 15, 2024The title, Minor Detail, is not only very relevant to the plot of this excellent book—as you would expect—but it is also very relevant to my experience of reading it.
Minor Detail is divided into two parts.
Part One is a clinically told account of a crime that took place in newly occupied territory in southern Israel in 1949.
Part Two is a first person account, told some sixty years later, of a preoccupation with the 1949 crime because of a minor detail the narrator comes across in an old report about it.
The two parts read very differently. The second part, because of the emotional voice of the narrator, is a strong and welcome contrast to the cold and emotionless telling of the first part.
As I said, the entire short book is based on the coincidence of a particular minor detail: the fact that the original crime happened exactly twenty-five years before the birth of the narrator of the second part, which made her determined to investigate it further. And the outcome of her investigation itself hinges on another minor detail. The book is very well named indeed.
But it wasn't those minor details that impressed me the most. No, it was the insertion into both sections of a number of other 'minor details' that turned out to mirror each other perfectly: the smell of petrol on clothing, a dog constantly barking, vulnerable girls, heat so intense it clouds judgement, mirages that cloud vision, an unnamed Palestinian person in a dangerous situation, nervous and trigger-happy Israeli soldiers.
And those details, added to the clinical narration of the first part of the book, triggered a reading memory for me: the story of Mersault in French-occupied Algeria in the 1940s. And so I took down Albert Camus's L'Étranger from the bookshelf and re-read it. And there I found the barking dog, the heat that clouds judgement, vulnerable girls, mirages, an unnamed Algerian person in a dangerous situation, and a man who should never have been given a gun.
…………….
See further discussion of the two books in the comment thread.
Minor Detail is divided into two parts.
Part One is a clinically told account of a crime that took place in newly occupied territory in southern Israel in 1949.
Part Two is a first person account, told some sixty years later, of a preoccupation with the 1949 crime because of a minor detail the narrator comes across in an old report about it.
The two parts read very differently. The second part, because of the emotional voice of the narrator, is a strong and welcome contrast to the cold and emotionless telling of the first part.
As I said, the entire short book is based on the coincidence of a particular minor detail: the fact that the original crime happened exactly twenty-five years before the birth of the narrator of the second part, which made her determined to investigate it further. And the outcome of her investigation itself hinges on another minor detail. The book is very well named indeed.
But it wasn't those minor details that impressed me the most. No, it was the insertion into both sections of a number of other 'minor details' that turned out to mirror each other perfectly: the smell of petrol on clothing, a dog constantly barking, vulnerable girls, heat so intense it clouds judgement, mirages that cloud vision, an unnamed Palestinian person in a dangerous situation, nervous and trigger-happy Israeli soldiers.
And those details, added to the clinical narration of the first part of the book, triggered a reading memory for me: the story of Mersault in French-occupied Algeria in the 1940s. And so I took down Albert Camus's L'Étranger from the bookshelf and re-read it. And there I found the barking dog, the heat that clouds judgement, vulnerable girls, mirages, an unnamed Algerian person in a dangerous situation, and a man who should never have been given a gun.
…………….
See further discussion of the two books in the comment thread.
March 18, 2024
PROPRIO NULLA DI “MINORE”
Negev
Di dettagli minori è composto questo libro, diviso nettamente in due parti: la prima, narrata in terza persona, ci racconta di un plotone di soldati israeliani che nel 1949 (e quindi l’anno dopo la nascita dello Stato d’Israele, e quindi l’anno dopo la Nakba) è dislocata nel sud del deserto del Negev, in prossimità del confine con l’Egitto, con la missione di snidare arabi rimasti in zona. Da quelle parti vivono beduini, non molti, ma qualcuno sì: dediti all’allevamento, certo non sono motori di trasformazione e sfruttamento del terreno. I soldati, guidati da un capitano, ne trovano un piccolo gruppo, lo eliminano (= uccidono tutti), tranne una ragazza adolescente che viene trascinata prigioniera al loro campo. Qui succede quello che la bandella sintetizza così: La ragazza viene catturata, stuprata, uccisa e sepolta nella sabbia.
Il corsivo certo non è un dettaglio minore. Così come la morte dei beduini. Ma Adania Shibli sembra trattarli come dettagli minori: raccontando con mano leggera, che si astiene dalle parti più crude e drammatiche, le lascia intuire tra le righe. Si concentra invece molto su aspetti che sembrerebbero marginali: le abluzioni del capitano, le sue passeggiate tra le dune del deserto, la ferita sulla coscia procurata dalla puntura (o morso) di un qualche animaletto della sabbia, ragno, scorpione o altro. Riempie la prima metà di questo breve romanzo essenzialmente con questi dettagli minori. In mezzo ai quali, quasi per caso, o per sbaglio, spuntano i fatti di sangue e violenza come l’erba che cresce spontanea tra le rocce del deserto.
La seconda metà del libro diventa invece in prima persona. L’io narrante è una giovane donna palestinese che apprende per caso del fatto che occupa la prima metà e ne rimane colpita in quanto successo esattamente il giorno del suo compleanno, ma venticinque anni prima. Questa coincidenza motiva la sua curiosità, il suo viaggio di ricerca ed esplorazione. Che Adania Shibli riempie di percorsi stradali, di mappe consultate, di descrizione del paesaggio, di quanti villaggi arabi sono spariti rispetto all’epoca del fattaccio, non trasformati, ribattezzati, ma proprio cancellati, annullati. La giovane donna deve passare check point, operazione che le procura palpitazioni e sudori freddi. La macchina è a noleggio…
Dettagli minori, appunto. Salvo che nelle ultime due righe ci lascia capire come il destino si ripeta: sono passati più di settant’anni, ma le cose stanno ancora nello stesso modo. Vince ancora la violenza, e la prevaricazione.
Il deserto del Negev è una parte della cintura desertica che si estende dall'oceano Atlantico all'India, occupa una superficie di circa 12.000 km², pari al 60% circa dello stato di Israele. Tuttavia, solo il dieci per cento circa della popolazione del paese vive in questa zona.
Negev
Di dettagli minori è composto questo libro, diviso nettamente in due parti: la prima, narrata in terza persona, ci racconta di un plotone di soldati israeliani che nel 1949 (e quindi l’anno dopo la nascita dello Stato d’Israele, e quindi l’anno dopo la Nakba) è dislocata nel sud del deserto del Negev, in prossimità del confine con l’Egitto, con la missione di snidare arabi rimasti in zona. Da quelle parti vivono beduini, non molti, ma qualcuno sì: dediti all’allevamento, certo non sono motori di trasformazione e sfruttamento del terreno. I soldati, guidati da un capitano, ne trovano un piccolo gruppo, lo eliminano (= uccidono tutti), tranne una ragazza adolescente che viene trascinata prigioniera al loro campo. Qui succede quello che la bandella sintetizza così: La ragazza viene catturata, stuprata, uccisa e sepolta nella sabbia.
Il corsivo certo non è un dettaglio minore. Così come la morte dei beduini. Ma Adania Shibli sembra trattarli come dettagli minori: raccontando con mano leggera, che si astiene dalle parti più crude e drammatiche, le lascia intuire tra le righe. Si concentra invece molto su aspetti che sembrerebbero marginali: le abluzioni del capitano, le sue passeggiate tra le dune del deserto, la ferita sulla coscia procurata dalla puntura (o morso) di un qualche animaletto della sabbia, ragno, scorpione o altro. Riempie la prima metà di questo breve romanzo essenzialmente con questi dettagli minori. In mezzo ai quali, quasi per caso, o per sbaglio, spuntano i fatti di sangue e violenza come l’erba che cresce spontanea tra le rocce del deserto.
La seconda metà del libro diventa invece in prima persona. L’io narrante è una giovane donna palestinese che apprende per caso del fatto che occupa la prima metà e ne rimane colpita in quanto successo esattamente il giorno del suo compleanno, ma venticinque anni prima. Questa coincidenza motiva la sua curiosità, il suo viaggio di ricerca ed esplorazione. Che Adania Shibli riempie di percorsi stradali, di mappe consultate, di descrizione del paesaggio, di quanti villaggi arabi sono spariti rispetto all’epoca del fattaccio, non trasformati, ribattezzati, ma proprio cancellati, annullati. La giovane donna deve passare check point, operazione che le procura palpitazioni e sudori freddi. La macchina è a noleggio…
Dettagli minori, appunto. Salvo che nelle ultime due righe ci lascia capire come il destino si ripeta: sono passati più di settant’anni, ma le cose stanno ancora nello stesso modo. Vince ancora la violenza, e la prevaricazione.
Il deserto del Negev è una parte della cintura desertica che si estende dall'oceano Atlantico all'India, occupa una superficie di circa 12.000 km², pari al 60% circa dello stato di Israele. Tuttavia, solo il dieci per cento circa della popolazione del paese vive in questa zona.
February 12, 2024
Minor Detail is a short but harrowing and deeply impactful novella. It follows two timelines: one in 1949 that details the brutal rape and subsequent murder of a young Palestinian woman by a group of Israeli soldiers (written from one of their POVs), and another from the POV of a Palestinian women intent on investigating/bringing to light this event that has become a “minor detail” in history.
The writing style was very cold and almost detached in a way that really highlighted the desolation/hopelessness of it all. The ending is just a total gut punch and offers a glimpse of the life horrors Palestine is facing.
A short but haunting read.
The writing style was very cold and almost detached in a way that really highlighted the desolation/hopelessness of it all. The ending is just a total gut punch and offers a glimpse of the life horrors Palestine is facing.
A short but haunting read.
May 4, 2024
تفصيل ثانوي رواية للكاتبة الفلسطينية عدنية شبلي التي تم الغاء حفل تكريمها في معرض فرانكفورت للكتاب بسبب دعم إدارة المعرض لإسرائيل مما أدي إلي انسحاب عدد من المؤلفين و العديد من دور النشر العربية من المعرض هذا العام...
الرواية المفروض بتتكلم علي أحداث حقيقية وقعت عام ١٩٤٩ حيث تم قتل و اغتصاب فتاة بدوية فلسطينية على يد جنود إسرائيليين ....
طبعاً مضمون الرواية و ما يحدث اليوم في غزة من أحداث مأساوية ضمن الأسباب الرئيسية التي أدت إلي منع تكريم الكاتبة و في نفس الوقت بتأكد لنا إن الحريات التي ينادي بها الغرب ملهاش وجود اصلاً علي أرض الواقع!
الرواية مقسمة إلي جزئين جزء بيتكلم عن الحدث الرئيسي في ما يخص البنت الفلسطينية وقتلها و جزء تاني عن فتاة قررت تتبع القصة بتفاصيلها بعد مرور ٢٥ سنة علي حدوثها والصراحة الجزء دة ملوش أي لازمة و لا معني و لم يضف شئ للرواية بجانب إن الجزء الاول كله تفاصيل مش بس ثانوية لا دي تفاصيل ثانوية و جانبية و مملة و كل حاجة..
بمنتهي الأمانة الأحداث المهمة في هذه الرواية لا تتعدي ١٠-٢٠ صفحة بالكتير وكانت المفروض تكون قصة قصيرة...
العمل طبعاً أخد شهرة في هذه الأيام الصعبة لكن كعمل أدبي مش حقدر أقيمه بأكتر من نجمتين!
الرواية المفروض بتتكلم علي أحداث حقيقية وقعت عام ١٩٤٩ حيث تم قتل و اغتصاب فتاة بدوية فلسطينية على يد جنود إسرائيليين ....
طبعاً مضمون الرواية و ما يحدث اليوم في غزة من أحداث مأساوية ضمن الأسباب الرئيسية التي أدت إلي منع تكريم الكاتبة و في نفس الوقت بتأكد لنا إن الحريات التي ينادي بها الغرب ملهاش وجود اصلاً علي أرض الواقع!
الرواية مقسمة إلي جزئين جزء بيتكلم عن الحدث الرئيسي في ما يخص البنت الفلسطينية وقتلها و جزء تاني عن فتاة قررت تتبع القصة بتفاصيلها بعد مرور ٢٥ سنة علي حدوثها والصراحة الجزء دة ملوش أي لازمة و لا معني و لم يضف شئ للرواية بجانب إن الجزء الاول كله تفاصيل مش بس ثانوية لا دي تفاصيل ثانوية و جانبية و مملة و كل حاجة..
بمنتهي الأمانة الأحداث المهمة في هذه الرواية لا تتعدي ١٠-٢٠ صفحة بالكتير وكانت المفروض تكون قصة قصيرة...
العمل طبعاً أخد شهرة في هذه الأيام الصعبة لكن كعمل أدبي مش حقدر أقيمه بأكتر من نجمتين!
August 7, 2022
the struggle of Palestinian women under Israeli occupation across two distinct yet related timelines, perspectives shifting from the third to the first, man to woman, Israeli to Palestinian, soldier to civilian. Moving and tragic, wish it were a bit longer
December 18, 2023
At no point did I believe I would give this novella a five rating until the moment I finished it. Read Liv's and Jola's reviews.
September 27, 2021
A harrowing read on violence, erasure and who writes history, despite its matter of fact style of narration.
Then, after a moment of silence, he adds that the only incident he ever encountered was when he volunteered in a military unit formed after the end of the war, whose primary mission was to search for infiltrators in the area. What was the incident? I ask, trying to keep my heartbeats from choking my voice. He replies that one day, during a patrol, they found the body of a young Bedouin girl in a nearby well, and explains to me that when Arabs are suspicious about a girl’s behaviour, they kill her and throw her body in a well. Such a shame, he adds, that they have such customs.
Minor Detail should definitely have been on the shortlist of the International Bookerprize instead of the equally short The War of the Poor.
Divided in two parts, one very matter of factly and detached, one rather chatty, the subject Adania Shibli addresses is who writes history.
The brutal humiliation, violence and death in the first part is investigated in the second part of the book. However the Palestinian narrator can hardly leave her area without checkpoint upon checkpoint, and any original sources are almost unreachable for her:
Then I ask him if, as a Palestinian, I can enter these museums and archives? And he responds, before putting down the receiver, that he doesn’t see what would prevent me. And I don’t see what would prevent me either, except for my identity card.
This chatty, possibly neurodivergent narrator born 25 years after the events in the Negev desert, detailed in part 1, encounters a lot of the same power disparities. A grim book, that meditates on history, oppression and testimony. I look forward to reading more by the author, since already in this slim work she packs a gruesome punch.
To close of the below paragraph expertly captures what the books touches upon in term of major themes:
The date on which it occurred cannot be more than a coincidence. Besides, sometimes it’s inevitable for the past to be forgotten, especially if the present is no less horrific; that is, until I’m awoken at dawn one morning by the dog barking, followed by the wail of a strong wind. I rush to close all the windows until I get to the big window, through which I see how mercilessly the wind is pulling at the grasses and trees, shaking their branches in every direction, while the leaves tremble and writhe back and forth, nearly ripping off as the wind viciously toys with them. And the plants simply don’t resist. They just surrender to the fact of their fragility, that the wind can do what it wishes with them, fooling around with their leaves, passing between their branches, penetrating their boughs, and all the while it carries the dog’s frantic barking, tossing the sound in every direction. And again, a group of soldiers capture a girl, rape her, then kill her, twenty five years to the day before I was born; this minor detail, which others might not give a second thought, will stay with me forever; in spite of myself and how hard I try to forget it, the truth of it will never stop chasing me, given how fragile I am, as weak as the trees out there past the windowpane.
Then, after a moment of silence, he adds that the only incident he ever encountered was when he volunteered in a military unit formed after the end of the war, whose primary mission was to search for infiltrators in the area. What was the incident? I ask, trying to keep my heartbeats from choking my voice. He replies that one day, during a patrol, they found the body of a young Bedouin girl in a nearby well, and explains to me that when Arabs are suspicious about a girl’s behaviour, they kill her and throw her body in a well. Such a shame, he adds, that they have such customs.
Minor Detail should definitely have been on the shortlist of the International Bookerprize instead of the equally short The War of the Poor.
Divided in two parts, one very matter of factly and detached, one rather chatty, the subject Adania Shibli addresses is who writes history.
The brutal humiliation, violence and death in the first part is investigated in the second part of the book. However the Palestinian narrator can hardly leave her area without checkpoint upon checkpoint, and any original sources are almost unreachable for her:
Then I ask him if, as a Palestinian, I can enter these museums and archives? And he responds, before putting down the receiver, that he doesn’t see what would prevent me. And I don’t see what would prevent me either, except for my identity card.
This chatty, possibly neurodivergent narrator born 25 years after the events in the Negev desert, detailed in part 1, encounters a lot of the same power disparities. A grim book, that meditates on history, oppression and testimony. I look forward to reading more by the author, since already in this slim work she packs a gruesome punch.
To close of the below paragraph expertly captures what the books touches upon in term of major themes:
The date on which it occurred cannot be more than a coincidence. Besides, sometimes it’s inevitable for the past to be forgotten, especially if the present is no less horrific; that is, until I’m awoken at dawn one morning by the dog barking, followed by the wail of a strong wind. I rush to close all the windows until I get to the big window, through which I see how mercilessly the wind is pulling at the grasses and trees, shaking their branches in every direction, while the leaves tremble and writhe back and forth, nearly ripping off as the wind viciously toys with them. And the plants simply don’t resist. They just surrender to the fact of their fragility, that the wind can do what it wishes with them, fooling around with their leaves, passing between their branches, penetrating their boughs, and all the while it carries the dog’s frantic barking, tossing the sound in every direction. And again, a group of soldiers capture a girl, rape her, then kill her, twenty five years to the day before I was born; this minor detail, which others might not give a second thought, will stay with me forever; in spite of myself and how hard I try to forget it, the truth of it will never stop chasing me, given how fragile I am, as weak as the trees out there past the windowpane.
April 25, 2024
"Besides, sometimes it's inevitable for the past to be forgotten, especially if the present is no less horrific."
Minor Detail is a small book broken up in two parts. In part I, we see the (true) story of a young Bedouin girl in 1950s Palestine being taken and raped, then murdered by Israeli soldiers. In part II, we follow a Palestinian journalist from Ramallah as she tries to learn more about this woman’s story.
Part I
The first part of this book is written in a detached third person voice. It seems like it from the journal entries of the Israeli soldier who found and abused the Bedouin girl. The horrific story of this girl isn't even on this guy's priority list and the disconnected tone makes it all the more haunting as you see how this terrible act is nothing but a minor detail in the lives of these soldiers. I found this first part a little disjointed and very hard to get through, but that was the point. This part is sickening and it’s even more sickening that it was real.
Part II
The second part of the book is written in the more personal first person, as we follow a young journalist who grows obsessed with this Bedouin girl's story solely because it happened 25 years before the day she was born. This story hits just as hard as we follow her in present day Palestine and observe all of the obstacles and dangers she faces when she is just trying to get a bit more information on something. We follow our main character as she goes from Ramallah to Tel Aviv and the many struggles she faces before she herself becomes a minor detail.
This book does exactly what it sets out to do perfectly. It is an exemplary example of how reading and writing is resistance. This book can also be read in about a day and I would implore everyone to give it a go. It's a hard read, but it is so important. Despite it's size, this is a book that will stick with me for a long time.
I would highly recommend to anyone based on the contents alone, but the fact that the author has been censured and unable to receive her reward at the Frankfurt Book Fair because of what is going on in Palestine makes it an incredibly important read right now.
Minor Detail is a small book broken up in two parts. In part I, we see the (true) story of a young Bedouin girl in 1950s Palestine being taken and raped, then murdered by Israeli soldiers. In part II, we follow a Palestinian journalist from Ramallah as she tries to learn more about this woman’s story.
Part I
The first part of this book is written in a detached third person voice. It seems like it from the journal entries of the Israeli soldier who found and abused the Bedouin girl. The horrific story of this girl isn't even on this guy's priority list and the disconnected tone makes it all the more haunting as you see how this terrible act is nothing but a minor detail in the lives of these soldiers. I found this first part a little disjointed and very hard to get through, but that was the point. This part is sickening and it’s even more sickening that it was real.
Part II
The second part of the book is written in the more personal first person, as we follow a young journalist who grows obsessed with this Bedouin girl's story solely because it happened 25 years before the day she was born. This story hits just as hard as we follow her in present day Palestine and observe all of the obstacles and dangers she faces when she is just trying to get a bit more information on something. We follow our main character as she goes from Ramallah to Tel Aviv and the many struggles she faces before she herself becomes a minor detail.
This book does exactly what it sets out to do perfectly. It is an exemplary example of how reading and writing is resistance. This book can also be read in about a day and I would implore everyone to give it a go. It's a hard read, but it is so important. Despite it's size, this is a book that will stick with me for a long time.
I would highly recommend to anyone based on the contents alone, but the fact that the author has been censured and unable to receive her reward at the Frankfurt Book Fair because of what is going on in Palestine makes it an incredibly important read right now.
February 29, 2024
Bleak, unsettling, and devastating - Minor Detail takes an uncompromising look at the realities of life in an occupied Palestine.
Trigger/Content Warnings: sexual assault, confinement, kidnapping, murder, occupation, oppression, colonization, genocide
This book was mentioned in my favourite books of the year book bracket video: https://youtu.be/Ah6pbIKDRVk
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Trigger/Content Warnings: sexual assault, confinement, kidnapping, murder, occupation, oppression, colonization, genocide
This book was mentioned in my favourite books of the year book bracket video: https://youtu.be/Ah6pbIKDRVk
You can find me on...
Youtube | Instagram | TikTok
You can join our book club over on Patreon...
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October 19, 2023Палестинська книжка, яка стала причиною скандальчику на Франкфуртському книжковому ярмарку - їй мали вручати премію для письменниць з Азії, Африки чи ЛатАмерики, але в контексті війни, яку почав Хамас, вирішили відкласти вручення. Звичайно, тут вступилося 350 інших письменників, які заговорили про "відповідальність ярмарку створювати простір, де палестинські автори можуть ділитися своїми думками, почуттями й роздумами, а не затикати їх". І тут мене, правду кажучи, гризе чорна заздрість, бо українцям у праві на лють відмовлено, від українських голосів на заході вимагають месіджу примирення, навіть коли нас убивають - натомість палестинським авторам ненависть дозволена. Але про це далі.
В центрі повісті "Дрібна деталь" стоїть реальний страшний злочин - 1949 року загін ізраїльських солдатів викрав, згвалтував і вбив палестинську дівчинку-підлітку. Авторка повісті обирає цей давній злочин як промовисту і викривальну дрібну деталь: наприклад, якщо потрібно відрізнити автентичне полотно від підробки, то дивляться не на обли��чя чи в центр композиції, дивляться на дрібні деталі (нігті, вуха) - те, що автор фальшивки вважатиме менш важливим, а тому може втратити пильність і виказати себе. Так само й цей давно забутий злочин - це нібито та сама дрібна деталь, яка дає змогу оприявнити всю систему: колонізаторський проєкт в основі держави Ізраїль - це не про те, аби пустеля розквітла, це про винищення місцевого населення, етнічні чистки і насильство.
Структурний хід, звісно, красивий, але мені як читачці промовистішим здається те, звідки ми про цей злочин узагалі знаємо - а знаємо ми про це, бо є судові справи. Начальник загону сів на 15 років, решта 19 солдатів відсидять від 1 до 3 років, сам прем'єр-міністр Бен-Гуріон у щоденнику згадує це як жахливе звірство. Оприлюднюють справу після розсекречення документів на початку 2000-х, знов-таки, ізраїльські журналісти в ізраїльській газеті - тобто навіть за 50 років це вважається достатньо важливою дикістю, аби її засуджувати. Інакше кажучи, навіть хоча злочин вчинено в часи, коли держава Ізра��ль щойно постала й відчайдушно боролася за виживання, конкретно цю справу не замели під килим як collateral damage, не подали як норму. А тепер подивімося, скільки ракушок виправдовують злочини Хамасу як частину боротьби за виживання. От якщо ми почуємо про те, що в Хамасі почнуть судити своїх бойовиків за вбивства і згвалтування цивілів, а не використовувати терор як метод, тоді й поговоримо, бо інакше ця історія в центрі повісті - це not the gotcha you think it is. Справжнім gotcha є злочини, яких не розслідують, про які таки забули всі (і їх не бракує в палестинській історії, але конкретно в цьому випадку іронічний контраст є).
Але написано майстерно! Дуже бісюче, але майстерно! Повість складається з двох частин: власне, опис злочину - й історія жінки, що народилася рівно за 25 років після його вчинення й намагається з'ясувати деталі. Який стосунок між двома частинами - не зовсім зрозуміло: чи то перша частина - це розповідь, яку героїня другої частини вибудовує в себе в голові (бо там багато перетинів сенсоріуму - тіло дівчини на піску перегукується з німецьким експресіоністським полотном, яке героїня бачить, обох переслідує запах бензину, етц.), чи то перша частина - це минуле, яке недоступне на раціональному рівні (розслідування закінчується нічим), але на рівні тілесної історії минуле не таке вже й минуле.
Коротше, перша частина (про злочин) - це прямо заздрість, якщо ви українці. Ми маємо зі співчуттям ставитися до всіх бідних російських хлопчиків, які приходять нас убивати, і їхніх матерів, інакше ми якісь дикі і нецивілізовані. Натомість палестинська авторка може фігачити абсолютно дегуманізуючі потрети ізраїльтян, відмовляючи їм у будь-якому внутрішньому житті, крім лицемірства і кровожерливості - і гребти за це міжнародні нагороди. Нам так не жить (а хотілося б, щоб про росіян можна було писати так, бо росіяни заслужили).
Ізраїльські солдати приходять на не свою землю, і сама земля їм ворожа і чужа, це на рівні лексики підкреслено: небо чигає, спека інфільтрує, їм треба акліматизуватися (бо це не їхній клімат). Вони чистенькі (весь час миються, що весь час описано тими самими словами) - але це, як ви розумієте, паралель до чисток, які вони провадять щодо місцевого населення, людського і звіриного. Вони розповідають про підступного ворога, який ще й лінивий і занедбав землю, а ось вони тут зроблять квітучий сад (квітучі сади оці - центральний топос сіоністського проєкту від його перших днів) - але розповідають це над трупом згвалтованої дівчинки, це єдине, що вони зробили на цій землі. Загалом, настільки прямолінійно плоских лиходіїв я поза коміксами вже й не згадаю, це максимально суперечить сучасній сенсібіліті (і ми об це б'ємося лобом, коли нам знову заводять пісню про хороших русскіх).
Друга частина, знов-таки, напевно дратувала б мене менше, якби не повномасштабна війна у нас, бо теж починаєш порівнювати межі дозволеного в окупації тут і там (блін, я дуже не люблю, коли дві групи жертв стикають лобами, але контраст правда разючий). І в "Дрібній деталі" окупація написана з наголосом на максимально штучну якусь браваду з прицілом на видушити сльозу з вестернера. Наприклад, героїня, йдучи на роботу, натрапляє на ізраїльський блокпост:
Оце "наставили зброю - це звичайна ситуація, піду порушу правила і проберуся за армійський кордон інакше" - це, як то кажуть, вірю, я повірив. Людина може бравувати таким лише в тому разі, якщо певна, що стріляти в неї якраз не будуть. П'ятихвилинка на подумати, чому з окупованих Росією територій нема текстів з такою бравадою, ага. При цьому я не применшую жахливості будь-якої окупації, і реальні жахи там теж є (скажімо, дуже-дуже крає серце, коли героїня порівнює карти до Накби і нинішні карти, фокусуючись на всіх зниклих селах, на цілому стертому світі, від якого не лишилося і сліду в реальності), але конкретно ця бравада мені звучала штучно, як і якісь такі кокетування:
Оооой, та яке awkwardness, на жаль, у західній видавничій екосистемі автора з екзотичних країн (це й Україна теж) не перекладатимуть просто так, за, умовно кажучи, цікавий любовний роман, нас усіх читають, щоб понасолоджуватися стражданнями, тож не треба прикидатися, що це не selling point усієї цієї літератури, а незручна ситуація :-/
Коротше, книжка написана добре, але (а) я розумію, чому нагородження відклали - і розумію, чому хтось виходив із журі на знак протесту, що взагалі обрали її; (б) мені вона відтоптала якісь несподівані мозолі, від яких я почуваюся поганою людиною. Якщо є імовірність, що вам теж відтопче, то поки що краще не читати.
(Але все ж цікаво, чим різниця в межі дозволеного для палестинських і українських авторів на літринку зумовлена: антисемітизмом - чи українофобією?)
В центрі повісті "Дрібна деталь" стоїть реальний страшний злочин - 1949 року загін ізраїльських солдатів викрав, згвалтував і вбив палестинську дівчинку-підлітку. Авторка повісті обирає цей давній злочин як промовисту і викривальну дрібну деталь: наприклад, якщо потрібно відрізнити автентичне полотно від підробки, то дивляться не на обли��чя чи в центр композиції, дивляться на дрібні деталі (нігті, вуха) - те, що автор фальшивки вважатиме менш важливим, а тому може втратити пильність і виказати себе. Так само й цей давно забутий злочин - це нібито та сама дрібна деталь, яка дає змогу оприявнити всю систему: колонізаторський проєкт в основі держави Ізраїль - це не про те, аби пустеля розквітла, це про винищення місцевого населення, етнічні чистки і насильство.
Структурний хід, звісно, красивий, але мені як читачці промовистішим здається те, звідки ми про цей злочин узагалі знаємо - а знаємо ми про це, бо є судові справи. Начальник загону сів на 15 років, решта 19 солдатів відсидять від 1 до 3 років, сам прем'єр-міністр Бен-Гуріон у щоденнику згадує це як жахливе звірство. Оприлюднюють справу після розсекречення документів на початку 2000-х, знов-таки, ізраїльські журналісти в ізраїльській газеті - тобто навіть за 50 років це вважається достатньо важливою дикістю, аби її засуджувати. Інакше кажучи, навіть хоча злочин вчинено в часи, коли держава Ізра��ль щойно постала й відчайдушно боролася за виживання, конкретно цю справу не замели під килим як collateral damage, не подали як норму. А тепер подивімося, скільки ракушок виправдовують злочини Хамасу як частину боротьби за виживання. От якщо ми почуємо про те, що в Хамасі почнуть судити своїх бойовиків за вбивства і згвалтування цивілів, а не використовувати терор як метод, тоді й поговоримо, бо інакше ця історія в центрі повісті - це not the gotcha you think it is. Справжнім gotcha є злочини, яких не розслідують, про які таки забули всі (і їх не бракує в палестинській історії, але конкретно в цьому випадку іронічний контраст є).
Але написано майстерно! Дуже бісюче, але майстерно! Повість складається з двох частин: власне, опис злочину - й історія жінки, що народилася рівно за 25 років після його вчинення й намагається з'ясувати деталі. Який стосунок між двома частинами - не зовсім зрозуміло: чи то перша частина - це розповідь, яку героїня другої частини вибудовує в себе в голові (бо там багато перетинів сенсоріуму - тіло дівчини на піску перегукується з німецьким експресіоністським полотном, яке героїня бачить, обох переслідує запах бензину, етц.), чи то перша частина - це минуле, яке недоступне на раціональному рівні (розслідування закінчується нічим), але на рівні тілесної історії минуле не таке вже й минуле.
Коротше, перша частина (про злочин) - це прямо заздрість, якщо ви українці. Ми маємо зі співчуттям ставитися до всіх бідних російських хлопчиків, які приходять нас убивати, і їхніх матерів, інакше ми якісь дикі і нецивілізовані. Натомість палестинська авторка може фігачити абсолютно дегуманізуючі потрети ізраїльтян, відмовляючи їм у будь-якому внутрішньому житті, крім лицемірства і кровожерливості - і гребти за це міжнародні нагороди. Нам так не жить (а хотілося б, щоб про росіян можна було писати так, бо росіяни заслужили).
Ізраїльські солдати приходять на не свою землю, і сама земля їм ворожа і чужа, це на рівні лексики підкреслено: небо чигає, спека інфільтрує, їм треба акліматизуватися (бо це не їхній клімат). Вони чистенькі (весь час миються, що весь час описано тими самими словами) - але це, як ви розумієте, паралель до чисток, які вони провадять щодо місцевого населення, людського і звіриного. Вони розповідають про підступного ворога, який ще й лінивий і занедбав землю, а ось вони тут зроблять квітучий сад (квітучі сади оці - центральний топос сіоністського проєкту від його перших днів) - але розповідають це над трупом згвалтованої дівчинки, це єдине, що вони зробили на цій землі. Загалом, настільки прямолінійно плоских лиходіїв я поза коміксами вже й не згадаю, це максимально суперечить сучасній сенсібіліті (і ми об це б'ємося лобом, коли нам знову заводять пісню про хороших русскіх).
Друга частина, знов-таки, напевно дратувала б мене менше, якби не повномасштабна війна у нас, бо теж починаєш порівнювати межі дозволеного в окупації тут і там (блін, я дуже не люблю, коли дві групи жертв стикають лобами, але контраст правда разючий). І в "Дрібній деталі" окупація написана з наголосом на максимально штучну якусь браваду з прицілом на видушити сльозу з вестернера. Наприклад, героїня, йдучи на роботу, натрапляє на ізраїльський блокпост:
I glimpsed two soldiers ... one of them bent his right knee to the ground and propped his left elbow on his other knee, aiming the barrel of his gun at me ... And while his action, by which I mean him pointing his gun at me, cannot be described as humane, it was enough for me to understand what he meant, and that I had to find another way to my new job. Up until this point, I had not found the situation to be unusual, or not so unusual that I should turn around and go back to my house. So I jumped over the walls and borders dividing the houses and buildings, and I do believe that jumping over borders is fully justifiable in a situation like this, is not it?
Оце "наставили зброю - це звичайна ситуація, піду порушу правила і проберуся за армійський кордон інакше" - це, як то кажуть, вірю, я повірив. Людина може бравувати таким лише в тому разі, якщо певна, що стріляти в неї якраз не будуть. П'ятихвилинка на подумати, чому з окупованих Росією територій нема текстів з такою бравадою, ага. При цьому я не применшую жахливості будь-якої окупації, і реальні жахи там теж є (скажімо, дуже-дуже крає серце, коли героїня порівнює карти до Накби і нинішні карти, фокусуючись на всіх зниклих селах, на цілому стертому світі, від якого не лишилося і сліду в реальності), але конкретно ця бравада мені звучала штучно, як і якісь такі кокетування:
By the way, I hope I didn’t cause any awkwardness when I mentioned the incident with the soldier, or the checkpoint, or when I reveal that we are living under occupation here
Оооой, та яке awkwardness, на жаль, у західній видавничій екосистемі автора з екзотичних країн (це й Україна теж) не перекладатимуть просто так, за, умовно кажучи, цікавий любовний роман, нас усіх читають, щоб понасолоджуватися стражданнями, тож не треба прикидатися, що це не selling point усієї цієї літератури, а незручна ситуація :-/
Коротше, книжка написана добре, але (а) я розумію, чому нагородження відклали - і розумію, чому хтось виходив із журі на знак протесту, що взагалі обрали її; (б) мені вона відтоптала якісь несподівані мозолі, від яких я почуваюся поганою людиною. Якщо є імовірність, що вам теж відтопче, то поки що краще не читати.
(Але все ж цікаво, чим різниця в межі дозволеного для палестинських і українських авторів на літринку зумовлена: антисемітизмом - чи українофобією?)
October 21, 2023
Minor Detail is going to haunt me for a long time. Wasn't my intention to read this in a single sitting, but I did.
The first half is set in the 1940s, about an Israeli army commander in the desert who organizes the gang rape of a Bedouin girl. It turns out to be based on a real event. The second, longer part, is about the logistical nightmares of a Palestinian woman hoping to research this crime.
It's all told with a language that reminds me of Hemingway, or better yet Dashiell Hammett. That is, it's all stuff like stage directions and straightforward description that manages to convey deep emotion better than if the author had tried to name the emotion directly or resort to more lyrical methods. It doesn't lead you anywhere but you still end up exactly where the author wants you.
Shibli was due to receive an award for the novel at the Frankfurt Book Fair, but the event was called off due to cowardice on the part of the organizers after Germany cracked down on showing support/solidarity with Palestinians after renewed conflict in Israel/Palestine. The book had been on my reading list before that, but the news of the cancellation is what made me pick it up now.
The first half is set in the 1940s, about an Israeli army commander in the desert who organizes the gang rape of a Bedouin girl. It turns out to be based on a real event. The second, longer part, is about the logistical nightmares of a Palestinian woman hoping to research this crime.
It's all told with a language that reminds me of Hemingway, or better yet Dashiell Hammett. That is, it's all stuff like stage directions and straightforward description that manages to convey deep emotion better than if the author had tried to name the emotion directly or resort to more lyrical methods. It doesn't lead you anywhere but you still end up exactly where the author wants you.
Shibli was due to receive an award for the novel at the Frankfurt Book Fair, but the event was called off due to cowardice on the part of the organizers after Germany cracked down on showing support/solidarity with Palestinians after renewed conflict in Israel/Palestine. The book had been on my reading list before that, but the news of the cancellation is what made me pick it up now.
March 31, 2021
Longlisted for the International Booker 2021
Masterfully constructed through a careful narrative built on hypnotic repetition and devastating echoes, this is haunting indeed and has a disproportionate impact in relation to the scant number of pages. In fact, I'd say that the one-sitting read will draw attention to the pulsing beat of reiterations which give both a formal and emotional architecture to the book.
What start out as 'internal' recurrences in the first half (the officer washing, the dressing of his infected wound, the howling of the dog) expand to become the intratexts that link the 'incident' with its recovery in the second half, a recuperation of a past happening that travels forward to become a partial reoccurrence in the present. Shivering, the scent of petrol that refuses to be washed away, soap suds on a body, even a landscape comprising thorn acacia and terebinth trees all provide ominous connections, as does the 'mirage' that opens and closes the text. The steady hammer blows of a constantly seen sign proclaiming 'Man, not the tank, shall prevail' thread ironically through both parts, leading to an end that layers one woman against another.
Understated and yet immensely, invisibly, artful.
... what drew me to the incident, what made it begin haunting me, was the presence of a detail that is really quite minor when compared to the incident's major details, which can only be described as tragic.
Masterfully constructed through a careful narrative built on hypnotic repetition and devastating echoes, this is haunting indeed and has a disproportionate impact in relation to the scant number of pages. In fact, I'd say that the one-sitting read will draw attention to the pulsing beat of reiterations which give both a formal and emotional architecture to the book.
What start out as 'internal' recurrences in the first half (the officer washing, the dressing of his infected wound, the howling of the dog) expand to become the intratexts that link the 'incident' with its recovery in the second half, a recuperation of a past happening that travels forward to become a partial reoccurrence in the present. Shivering, the scent of petrol that refuses to be washed away, soap suds on a body, even a landscape comprising thorn acacia and terebinth trees all provide ominous connections, as does the 'mirage' that opens and closes the text. The steady hammer blows of a constantly seen sign proclaiming 'Man, not the tank, shall prevail' thread ironically through both parts, leading to an end that layers one woman against another.
Understated and yet immensely, invisibly, artful.
May 23, 2020
Sometimes when I'm reading about a period of history a detail will jump out at me concerning an individual or incident which inexplicably resonates with me. It might be something small which there isn't much more information about so I can only imagine the circumstances surrounding it, but it has a way of bringing the past alive and offers an insight beyond the broader historical picture. That's what happens to the narrator in the second half of “Minor Detail” by Adania Shibli. Amidst her working day she comes across an article which describes how a young Palestinian woman was captured by Israeli soldiers in the Negev desert during the War of 1948. The woman was repeatedly raped before being killed and buried in the sand. It's only one incident in a war which led to the displacement and exile of some 700,000 Palestinians. Though it only gets a brief mention in this larger article she considers how “There may in fact be nothing more important than this little detail, if one wants to arrive at the complete truth, which, by leaving out the girl's story, the article does not reveal.” The narrator was also born exactly twenty-five years after this murdered woman's death and this makes her feel an affinity towards her. She embarks on a perilous journey across hostile territory to discover more about this obscure victim. In 112 pages of spare, piercing prose Shibli evokes great emotion. She exposes the tragedy of individuals who were not only victims of war but whose loss has been trivialised or forgotten when their personal stories are buried in a larger view of history.
Read my full review of Minor Detail by Adania Shibli on LonesomeReader
Read my full review of Minor Detail by Adania Shibli on LonesomeReader
August 22, 2024
Minor Detail is a must read. It is haunting and powerful. Sadly, this is a story that remains relevant and will need to be told until the war in Gaza ends. This novella is two stories set years apart, but connected by the expansion of the Jewish state into Palestinian territory.
Adania Shibli is an extremely talented writer. Part one follows Israeli unnamed soldiers on their patrols to secure territory in Palestine near the Egyption border following WWII. She describes the monotony and mundane days, lulling the reader. The barking of a dog and the continuous battle with the spiders are threaded throughout the narrative. My interpretation is the author is using these two as metaphors for how the Palestinians are viewed or as a way to dehumanize them. I have seen other authors use “bugs” or “dogs” as a way to convey this.
The reader knows horrors are on the horizon and when they arrive it is the atrocities of war that have been reported from every conflict. The rape of a teenager is written in a way that the vulgar act isn’t given in horrific detail detail, but in very subtle haunting descriptions of what is happening around the violation, not the violation itself.
Part two is about a Palestinian woman who reads about the event from part one and feels compelled to find out more based on a minor detail read in a newspaper article. We follow her pilgrimage to the location in order to learn first hand what happened. This is no easy sojourn. The country is divided into sections A, B, and C. She needs to overcome the challenges of getting proper papers/identification and secure a vehicle to get there. Checkpoints are terrifying. Beggars are everywhere.
The reader is immersed in the reality of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. I found it very unsettling and unnerving. And that brings us to the end of part two. The Palestinian woman’s internal conflict intersects with the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. The ending is like so many endings in situations like these - sad, powerful, and haunting.
Thank you to my local, independent bookstore for their display table and weekly email featuring this book with other Women In Translation. I strongly recommend Minor Detail and reading other translated literature.
Adania Shibli is an extremely talented writer. Part one follows Israeli unnamed soldiers on their patrols to secure territory in Palestine near the Egyption border following WWII. She describes the monotony and mundane days, lulling the reader. The barking of a dog and the continuous battle with the spiders are threaded throughout the narrative. My interpretation is the author is using these two as metaphors for how the Palestinians are viewed or as a way to dehumanize them. I have seen other authors use “bugs” or “dogs” as a way to convey this.
The reader knows horrors are on the horizon and when they arrive it is the atrocities of war that have been reported from every conflict. The rape of a teenager is written in a way that the vulgar act isn’t given in horrific detail detail, but in very subtle haunting descriptions of what is happening around the violation, not the violation itself.
Part two is about a Palestinian woman who reads about the event from part one and feels compelled to find out more based on a minor detail read in a newspaper article. We follow her pilgrimage to the location in order to learn first hand what happened. This is no easy sojourn. The country is divided into sections A, B, and C. She needs to overcome the challenges of getting proper papers/identification and secure a vehicle to get there. Checkpoints are terrifying. Beggars are everywhere.
The reader is immersed in the reality of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. I found it very unsettling and unnerving. And that brings us to the end of part two. The Palestinian woman’s internal conflict intersects with the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. The ending is like so many endings in situations like these - sad, powerful, and haunting.
Thank you to my local, independent bookstore for their display table and weekly email featuring this book with other Women In Translation. I strongly recommend Minor Detail and reading other translated literature.
October 23, 2023
This was a very difficult read. I couldn't separate it from everything that happened and still happening in the last 75 years. Palestinians are all but minor detail in the western narrative and breaks my heart.
Highly recommend to everyone.
#Freepalestine
#Readpalestinianauthors
Highly recommend to everyone.
#Freepalestine
#Readpalestinianauthors
December 3, 2023
A harrowing account of a crime committed against a Palestinian woman in the wake of the Nakba. In precise language and vivid imagery, Shibli asks us to question what we choose to focus on in the midst of war and subjugation and what compels us to notice and take action. It's a brief but powerful story rendered in two parts that come together with devastating parallels and disturbing resonance.
April 22, 2024
A tormenting gust of putrid air penetrates the broken body and soul of an unnamed soldier. The indifference and malaise ensures that horrors and savagery can be sustained: Innocence is a virtue for debate. Victimhood is a bartering coin. How can suffering be endured in the name of an idea(l)? How can we deviate from righteousness, morality and justifiable reasoning? Some actions are beyond comprehension. It’s all just history repeating itself. Adania Shibli’s telegraphic language, void of fanfaronade , gives us a glimpse into the eclipse of humanness. This is sharp-tasting novella that will leave you petrified with the illusions and realities of the human psyche.
4.3/5
4.3/5
July 14, 2020
Rating: 4🍌
Translated from the Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette, MINOR DETAIL by Adania Shibli opens with a striking image: "Nothing moved except the mirage. Vast stretches of barren hills rose in layers up to the sky, trembling slightly under the heft of the mirage, while the harsh afternoon sunlight blurred the outlines of the pale yellow ridges." This is a fitting opening image to this slim but affecting novella which suggests that history and identity can shift like the sands of the story's desert setting and questions whether it is possible to reconstruct a past that so often seems like a mirage. After this striking opening image, Shibli makes this thematic mirage concrete through a steady accretion of small details that gives the book its title.
MINOR DETAIL is split into two parts, structurally mirroring some of the novella’s major themes, including the split of Israel/Palestine and the divide between history and the present. The first part of the novella is by far the stronger of the two: set in 1949 in the Negev Desert, the narrative reconstructs a real-life crime: the rape and murder of a Bedouin girl by Israeli soldiers. Shibli brings us deep into the consciousness of an Israeli captain who has been tasked with clearing a region of the Negev Desert of Arabs in preparation for Israeli settlements. In atmospheric, carefully modulated prose, Shibli compiles a catalog of seemingly mundane details that repeat day after day and accumulate into a series of taut, oppressive, and altogether gripping scenes.
The spare prose, silent Bedouin girl, and desert setting bring to mind some of the stories from Camus's EXILE AND THE KINGDOM. However, Shibli subverts this in the second part of the novella when she brings us a first-person Palestinian narrator who, after learning that the murder of the Bedouin girl occurred exactly 25 years before the day she was born, attempts to track down the facts of the event. The narrator becomes strangely obsessed with learning about the incident and makes a risky journey outside of her permitted travel zones to track down what she can -- only to find that the story, like the Palestinian villages that once dotted the region, has largely vanished from the official record.
Though this is thematically and conceptually intriguing, it's less appealing on the page. The repetitive accumulation of "minor details" which worked so beautifully to create an oppressive and bleak atmosphere in the first half of the novella becomes less interesting in the present-day narrative, despite some wonderful moments (a scene in which the narrator, using a borrowed identity card, waits at a checkpoint is riveting). The way these details are used is also less effective, partly due to Shibli's structure in which details from the first half of the narrative are mirrored in the second. Understandable conceptually, but the execution could have been more effective: a spider that plays an eerie and pivotal role in the first narrative becomes an oblique detail in the second; the smell of gasoline that haunts the Israeli soldier in the first narrative becomes part of a peripheral incident in the latter. After a while, these recursive elements feel forced, their inclusion a formal effect rather than an integral part of the story. Still, the climactic scene in the narrative and thus the book is both haunting and effective.
I mentioned in my brief initial review that this novella might be one of those books that offers richer rewards through discussion and contemplation than through the act of reading. Now, a few weeks later, I think that’s true. But at just over 100 pages, it’s well worth the two hours required to read it.
Translated from the Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette, MINOR DETAIL by Adania Shibli opens with a striking image: "Nothing moved except the mirage. Vast stretches of barren hills rose in layers up to the sky, trembling slightly under the heft of the mirage, while the harsh afternoon sunlight blurred the outlines of the pale yellow ridges." This is a fitting opening image to this slim but affecting novella which suggests that history and identity can shift like the sands of the story's desert setting and questions whether it is possible to reconstruct a past that so often seems like a mirage. After this striking opening image, Shibli makes this thematic mirage concrete through a steady accretion of small details that gives the book its title.
MINOR DETAIL is split into two parts, structurally mirroring some of the novella’s major themes, including the split of Israel/Palestine and the divide between history and the present. The first part of the novella is by far the stronger of the two: set in 1949 in the Negev Desert, the narrative reconstructs a real-life crime: the rape and murder of a Bedouin girl by Israeli soldiers. Shibli brings us deep into the consciousness of an Israeli captain who has been tasked with clearing a region of the Negev Desert of Arabs in preparation for Israeli settlements. In atmospheric, carefully modulated prose, Shibli compiles a catalog of seemingly mundane details that repeat day after day and accumulate into a series of taut, oppressive, and altogether gripping scenes.
The spare prose, silent Bedouin girl, and desert setting bring to mind some of the stories from Camus's EXILE AND THE KINGDOM. However, Shibli subverts this in the second part of the novella when she brings us a first-person Palestinian narrator who, after learning that the murder of the Bedouin girl occurred exactly 25 years before the day she was born, attempts to track down the facts of the event. The narrator becomes strangely obsessed with learning about the incident and makes a risky journey outside of her permitted travel zones to track down what she can -- only to find that the story, like the Palestinian villages that once dotted the region, has largely vanished from the official record.
Though this is thematically and conceptually intriguing, it's less appealing on the page. The repetitive accumulation of "minor details" which worked so beautifully to create an oppressive and bleak atmosphere in the first half of the novella becomes less interesting in the present-day narrative, despite some wonderful moments (a scene in which the narrator, using a borrowed identity card, waits at a checkpoint is riveting). The way these details are used is also less effective, partly due to Shibli's structure in which details from the first half of the narrative are mirrored in the second. Understandable conceptually, but the execution could have been more effective: a spider that plays an eerie and pivotal role in the first narrative becomes an oblique detail in the second; the smell of gasoline that haunts the Israeli soldier in the first narrative becomes part of a peripheral incident in the latter. After a while, these recursive elements feel forced, their inclusion a formal effect rather than an integral part of the story. Still, the climactic scene in the narrative and thus the book is both haunting and effective.
I mentioned in my brief initial review that this novella might be one of those books that offers richer rewards through discussion and contemplation than through the act of reading. Now, a few weeks later, I think that’s true. But at just over 100 pages, it’s well worth the two hours required to read it.
October 25, 2023
Completely haunting. This novel is a mirror into the disturbing reality of occupation, and how the echoes of trauma ripple again and again over time.
November 4, 2023
‘man, not tank, shall prevail.’
harrowing and tense, but an incredibly important read. there’s so much to be said between the lines here, and a lot to sit with after digesting the symbolism and intricacies of the novel.
harrowing and tense, but an incredibly important read. there’s so much to be said between the lines here, and a lot to sit with after digesting the symbolism and intricacies of the novel.
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