Set in Jaffa in 1947-51, this fable-like novel is a heartbreaking tale of young love during the beginning of the destruction of Palestine and displacement of its people.

At times darkly humorous and ironic but also profoundly moving, this novel based on a true story, follows the lives of a gifted 15-year-old mechanic, Subhi, and 13-year-old Shams, a peasant girl he hopes to marry one day. At first we see the prosperous life of this cosmopolitan city on the Mediterranean—with its old cinemas, lively cafes and brothels, open air markets, a bustling port and Jaffa’s world famous orange groves—through the lives of the families of Subhi and Shams, but particularly through Subhi. As the story evolves, the indiscriminate bombing of Jaffa and the displacements of Palestinian families begin, and we get a fascinating though dark close-up of how those who remained survived. This novel is a cinematic, though devastating, account of one of the most dramatic and least known chapters of Palestinian history.
 
It is a portrait of a city and a people irrevocably changed.

SUAD AMIRY is an architect, founder and director of RIWAQ, Centre for Architectural Conservation, in Ramallah. She grew up in Amman, Damascus, Beirut, Cairo, and got her B.A. in architecture at the American University of Beirut, her M.A. in Urban Planning at the University of Michigan and her Ph.D. from Edinburgh. Amiry participated in the 1991–1993 Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations in Washington, D.C. She is the author of six books of non-fiction and several monographs on architecture, and was awarded Italy’s Viareggio-Versilia Prize in 2004 for Sharon and my Mother-in-Law. She lives in Ramallah. 

Part I
Subhi
1 The Best Mechanic in Town (Jaffa, June 1947) 3
2 The Promised English Suit 12
3 Jaffa’s Orange Groves (Bayyarat Yafa) 19
4 To Have or Not to Have the Promised Suit 25
5 Sugar Daddy 35
6 Three Green Notes and One Red (July 1947) 39
7 The Grand Suit Tour 47
8 English Pride 54
9 A Suit Etched on Paper 61
10 From the Fools’ Café to the Intellectuals’ Café and that of the Fishermen 67
11 Café il Inshirah: The Intellectuals’ Café 71
12 From Boyhood to Manhood 77
13 At the Brothel 83
14 Mawsim il Nabi Rubin (August– September 1947) 87
15 A Temporary Tent City 91
16 The Kisweh Celebrations from Jaffa to il Nabi Rubin 95
17 The Kite Maker 100
18 The Love of My Life 107

Part II
Back to Jaffa
19 Post- Vacation Blues (Jaffa, September 1947) 117
20 Death Oranges (Sunday, January 4, 1948) 123
21 A Train Robbery (end of March 1948) 128
22 Jerusalem’s Macabre Parade (April 8, 1948) 132

Part III
New Masters
23 The Day After (Jaffa, May 1948) 143
24 New Masters 149
25 The “Disputed” Suit Interrogations 157
26 At Jaffa’s Port 163
27 Disputed 167
28 Back to Being the Best Mechanic in No- Town 174

Part IV
Shams
29 A Surrogate Mother (il Lyd, May 1948) 183
30 A “Jewish” Cow (One Month Earlier, il Lyd, July 1948) 192
31 The Cow Interrogation: Big Crimes, Small Crimes 198
32 Someone at the Door 204
33 A Muslim Mother 214
34 An Escape Plan 221
35 Subhi: In Search of a Past, in Search of a Future 229
36 A Few Knocks at the Gate (Jaffa, 1950) 235
37 New Neighbors (Jaffa, 1951) 241
38 A Friendly Request 255
Epilogue (Jaffa, January 2018) 265

Author’s Note 269
Acknowledgments 273
Arabic to English Glossary 275