Men in the Sun: And Other Palestinian Stories by Ghassan Kanafani
A remarkable collection of short stories by Palestinian author Ghassan Kanafani are brought together for the first time
In little more than 100 pages, this slim volume reaches into the depths of your chest and then squeezes. Featuring a selection of short stories of varying lengths written by novelist, journalist and political activist, Ghassan Kanafani, it includes a biographical introduction by Karen E. Riley. Born in Palestine in 1936, Kanafani was a spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and founding editor of its weekly magazine, Al-Hadaf, before being killed by a car bomb in Beirut in 1972.
Replete with odd and achingly real interactions which follow you on your walk to work, into the shower, and as you fall asleep at night, these little stories are to be carefully chewed over and returned to. Some pieces of Kanafani’s writing are more compelling than others; the galvanising call to return to one’s homeland in Letters to Gaza is especially poignant given the ongoing genocidal assault on present-day Gaza. And Men in the Sun (the book’s namesake) is a heartrendingly familiar narrative with moments of stunning clarity. Originally published in 1962, this short story is both the author’s first and most famous piece of fiction. In it, three Palestinian men journey across the unforgiving Iraqi desert to seek a new life in Kuwait, migrating not to be liberated but for material betterment. In all, this is a small but powerful book which is as devastatingly relevant today as when it was written.
