Winner of the 2020 Moore Award

In the book "Going Home," Orwell Prize-winning author Raja Shehadeh travels to Ramallah and documents the evolving face of the city. Walking through the streets he grew up in, he narrates the stories of the people, relationships, homes, and businesses that were and now are the foundations of the city and his community.

This is, in many ways, an epitaph donation. The green spaces - gardens and hills crowned with olive trees - have been replaced by apartment buildings and concrete stretches. The occupation and settlements have infiltrated every aspect of movement - from the roads that can and cannot be used to the bureaucratic barriers preventing people from leaving the West Bank. The city's culture has also changed, with Islam taking on a more prominent role in the daily and political lives of the people and the city's geography.

Struggling with aging and the failures of resistance, Shehadeh notes the ways in which the past still invades the present, from the ruins of the complex that was Yasser Arafat's home to the power of families who migrated to reshape neighborhoods by selling their long-abandoned homes.

This is perhaps Raja Shehadeh's most painfully sensory book.

Pages: 208, Year of Publication: 0806, Dimensions: 12.8x12.8cm