Umm Saad

AN EXCERPT FROM THE NOVEL

UMM SAAD LIVED FOR COUNTLESS YEARS WITH MY family in al-Ghabasiya, and since then she has lived for a crushing load of years in the torment of the camps. She still comes to our house every Tuesday. She looks at things, conscious of her part in them to the marrow of her bones, and she looks on me as a son, pouring into my ear the tales of her misery, her joy, and her troubles. But never once does she complain.