Ibtisām ʻĀzim, trans. Sinan Antoon. The Book of Disappearance: A Novel. (Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 2019). Pp. 256. $19.95 paper. ISBN 9780815611110

Abstract

The Book of Disappearance explores questions of memory for the Palestinian people and land. Collective traumatic memory is a major theme across both Palestinian literature and Israeli literature, and this work joins the ranks of a growing body of literature that considers these questions as central to understanding Palestinian identity. The book imagines a world where, following a sudden and mysterious event, the entire Palestinian people have disappeared from the world without a trace, and ceased to exist except in memories. The two major protagonists of this book are Ariel, an Israeli journalist living in Tel Aviv, and his neighbor Alaa, a Palestinian. After Alaa’s disappearance, Ariel finds a notebook in Alaa’s apartment containing letters written to his late grandmother. It is through these letters that we hear Alaa’s story. Meanwhile, Ariel’s chapters are mostly active narration. Along similar lines of indirect storytelling, the Palestinians are portrayed through place in this novel: the places they fail to be, and the memories of them that exist despite their absence. In the early hours after the disappearance of the Palestinians, a series of chapters are devoted to describing this absence by way of setting, pointing out how noticeable the disappearance of Palestinians is in terms of Israeli reliance on Palestinians as laborers especially, in empty farms, busses without drivers, and similar scenes. Throughout, buildings and architecture are used to consider memory, and its preservation and destruction. While Ariel ruminates on the new buildings in Tel Aviv and the new street names, Alaa considers the older architecture and the original Arabic names of the streets. Ariel is mildly sympathetic toward Palestinians, but ultimately takes an ambivalent view. Much of the progress of the novel shows Ariel’s overtaking of Alaa’s physical space. At the same time, a countrywide Israeli seizure of Palestinian places is also occurring. After the prime minister announces that Palestinians who do not return within 48 hours must forfeit their property to the state, Israelis begin claiming homes and preparing for a national holiday. On the micro level, Ariel is slowly moving his belongings into Alaa’s apartment and making himself comfortable there, ultimately claiming it as his own. Despite their supposed friendship prior to the disappearance, Ariel seems to have no issue with claiming Alaa’s physical space, nor with invading it to the point of feeling that he has a right to read Alaa’s private journal, which Ariel even decides later MESA R o M E S 54 2 2021