Listen to a sample
Enter Ghost
- Author
- Isabella Hammad
- Narrator
- Nadia Albina
- Publisher
- Random House
- Publish Date
- 6 April 2023
- Run Time
- 11 hours 42 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
- Genre
- Modern and contemporary fiction: literary and general, Narrative theme: sense of place, Narrative theme: displacement, exile, migration, Narrative theme: politics / economics, Family life fiction / Stories about family, Narrative theme: social issues / social problems
- Rating
- 4.4 (5 reviews)
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What to expect
Brought to you by Penguin.
Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2024.
After years away from her family's homeland, and healing from an affair with an established director, stage actress Sonia Nasir returns to Palestine to visit her older sister Haneen. Though the siblings grew up spending summers at their family home in Haifa, Sonia hasn't been back since the second intifada and the deaths of her grandparents. While Haneen stayed and made a life commuting to Tel Aviv to teach at the university, Sonia remained in London to focus on her burgeoning acting career and now dissolute marriage. On her return, she finds her relationship to Palestine is fragile, both bone-deep and new.
Once at Haneen's, Sonia meets the charismatic and candid Mariam, a local director, and finds herself roped into a production of Hamlet in the West Bank. Soon, Sonia is rehearsing Gertude's lines in classical Arabic and spending more time in Ramallah than in Haifa with a dedicated group of men who, in spite of competing egos and priorities, each want to bring Shakespeare to that side of the wall. As opening night draws closer it becomes clear just how many invasive and violent obstacles stand before a troupe of Palestinian actors. Amidst it all, the life Sonia once knew starts to give way to the daunting, exhilarating possibility of finding a new self in her ancestral home.
A stunning rendering of present-day Palestine, Enter Ghost is a story of diaspora, displacement, and the connection to be found in family and shared resistance. Timely, thoughtful, and passionate, Isabella Hammad's highly anticipated second novel is an exquisite feat, an unforgettable story of artistry under occupation.
©2023 Isabella Hammad (P)2023 Penguin Audio
Critics Review
-
A gifted novelist... Enter Ghost is a moving and unforgettable book
SALLY ROONEY
-
Feels completely different to anything else being written right now in English, a heartfelt meditation on the relationship between art and politics.
Sunday Times
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Enter Ghost retells Hamlet for now, dropping its readers deep into the contemporary tensions of the West Bank, asking crucial and layered questions... Hammad is a calm and vital storyteller, a writer of real rhythmic grace.
Ali Smith, author of Autumn
-
A powerful new novel... Hammad is a pretty flawless writer.
The Times
See more reviews See fewer reviews
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Beautifully written, poignant yet forceful, thoughtful and thought provoking, but above all challenging the reader to respond to the question facing the characters in the novel: how to live under occupation while preserving your dignity and humanity? Hammad answers this question through taking us into the hearts and minds of the characters in the novel and through that into the heart and mind of Palestine.
Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran
-
A thought-provoking and highly topical story about the complex connections to be found in art, politics and family life.
Sunday Times, *Books of the Year*
-
Enter Ghost is a masterful, deeply convincing portrait of the all-too-real consequences of political theater - in both senses. A moving and important novel that presses upon the urgent question of how we ought to live in the midst of the rubble (and ongoing chaos) of political crisis.
Namwali Serpell, author of The Old Drift
-
A magnificent, deeply imagined story... A thought-provoking, engrossing story about the connections to be found in art, politics and family life.
Sunday Times
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Outstanding. Next-level. Aesthetically, intellectually, emotionally and culturally satisfying... Isabella Hammad is incapable of striking a false note. She immerses her heroine in volatile territory with the accuracy, compassion and coolness of a surgical knife sliding into a diseased body. The result is a stunning beauty - an eye-opening, uplifting novel that grants its vulnerable cast and their endeavors a rare and graceful dignity.
Leila Aboulela, author of Minaret
-
There could hardly be a more urgent time to understand the inner lives of Palestinians, which are here depicted with poignance and grace.
Observer, *Books of the Year*
User Reviews
Book 4.4
Narration 4.6
- No written reviews yet.
Details
- Author
- Isabella Hammad
- Narrator
- Nadia Albina
- Duration
- 11 hours 42 minutes
- Release Date
- 6 April 2023
- ISBN
- 9781529908886
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Random House
- Genre
- Modern and contemporary fiction: literary and general, Narrative theme: sense of place, Narrative theme: displacement, exile, migration, Narrative theme: politics / economics, Family life fiction / Stories about family, Narrative theme: social issues / social problems
- Rating
- 4.4(5 reviews)
- Narration
- 4.6(5 reviews)
Synopsis
Brought to you by Penguin.Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2024.After years away from her family's homeland, and healing from an affair with an established director, stage actress Sonia Nasir returns to Palestine to visit her older sister Haneen. Though the siblings grew up spending summers at their family home in Haifa, Sonia hasn't been back since the second intifada and the deaths of her grandparents. While Haneen stayed and made a life commuting to Tel Aviv to teach at the university, Sonia remained in London to focus on her burgeoning acting career and now dissolute marriage. On her return, she finds her relationship to Palestine is fragile, both bone-deep and new.Once at Haneen's, Sonia meets the charismatic and candid Mariam, a local director, and finds herself roped into a production of Hamlet in the West Bank. Soon, Sonia is rehearsing Gertude's lines in classical Arabic and spending more time in Ramallah than in Haifa with a dedicated group of men who, in spite of competing egos and priorities, each want to bring Shakespeare to that side of the wall. As opening night draws closer it becomes clear just how many invasive and violent obstacles stand before a troupe of Palestinian actors. Amidst it all, the life Sonia once knew starts to give way to the daunting, exhilarating possibility of finding a new self in her ancestral home.A stunning rendering of present-day Palestine, Enter Ghost is a story of diaspora, displacement, and the connection to be found in family and shared resistance. Timely, thoughtful, and passionate, Isabella Hammad's highly anticipated second novel is an exquisite feat, an unforgettable story of artistry under occupation.©2023 Isabella Hammad (P)2023 Penguin Audio
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