Rich, rewarding, lyrical, and vital. A stunning achievement.
Feature image credit: Text Publishing
Ariel lives in a block of flats in Jaffa/Tel Aviv. A freelance journalist, he regards himself as liberal-minded. After all, he is great friends with Alaa, his Arabic neighbour. One morning, after he and Alaa have a night out together, he is unable to contact him. Worried, he uses a spare key to get into Alaa’s flat to find it untouched, and Alaa nowhere to be found. When he visits his favourite Arab-run café, it is closed, and the owners missing. He soon hears reports that all Palestinians in Israel are on strike. Later, the reports get even stranger.
It appears that all the Palestinians in Israel have gone.
Whilst using his journalistic contacts to try to garner more information, Ariel spends time in Alaa’s flat reading a journal in which Alaa addresses his late grandmother. Meanwhile rumours abound. Is the Israeli Defence Force involved? Have the Arabs all just joined the diaspora? And those left have conflicting feelings about the situation. Some Zionists see it as a good thing: the ultimate aim of the Jewish state. Others are not so sure.
The Book of Disappearance does not shy away from difficult and uncomfortable questions. The whole narrative itself posits one over-arching question: What would happen if all the Palestinians in Israel disappeared?
Azem’s writing is crisp and direct, yet somehow also highly lyrical. Sinan Antoon’s translation is masterful, maintaining the lilting rhythm of Arabic within the confines of its conversion into English. The short chapters each form a discrete form of prose poetry, whilst moving the narrative forward. Ariel’s chapters are told mostly in third person. Alaa’s are told in first person, from the point-of-view of his grandmother’s journals, or second-person when he addresses her directly. There is some epistolary writing in the form of letters, and occasionally other forms, such as a news article written by Ariel. Each of these disparate forms plays a role in the over-arching story, and like an accidental in a piece of music, adds depth and form to the melody, rather than detracting from it.
The Book of Disappearance is a rich, rewarding, and thought-provoking reading experience. Its exploration of the role of memory with place-making, and the role of place within memory-making, is both geographically quite specific to Jaffa/Tel Aviv, but also universal. Place is personal. Place is political. And the political is personal. Although first published in 2014, it is wonderful to see this superb work now published internationally, and available in English for those of us who cannot read Arabic.
Without doubt, one of the year’s best novels.
Reviewed by Tracey Korsten
The views expressed in this review belong to the author and not Glam Adelaide, its affiliates, or employees.
Distributed by: Text Publishing
Released: April 2025
RRP: $34.99
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