The Blue Between Sky and Water

The story Susan Abulhawa tells in this marvellous novel is hard to bear but impossible to ignore. Through four generations of a Palestinian family, The Blue Between Sky and Water shows how history’s assault on each person is public, and how it nevertheless cannot extinguish the private experience of grief or the secret sense of eros. Abulhawa's vision is precise, courageous, and dazzling -- Teju Cole
In true Thousand and One Nights style, Abulhawa surprises us by continually unfolding new stories … Characters struggle to keep their secrets, but Abulhawa releases them. These are secrets we need to know, secrets that will educate us about ourselves, and Gaza * Guardian *
Gripping and deeply moving … Suffering and resilience are difficult things to witness, but this powerful, politically engaged novel does so with a transformative literary grace. Abulhawa’s prose is luminous; her control of a complex weaving of narrative voices – young and old, male and female, magical and real – is masterful. The novel provides an intimate close-up of the women of Gaza and of the everyday heroism amid relentless loss * Independent on Sunday *
She is a fine observer of female kinship ... A powerful read * Financial Times *
One of the most thought-provoking books I’ve read … written with passion, honesty and poetry * Daily Mail on Mornings in Jenin *
Abulhawa’s writing shines … Friendship, adolescence, love: ordinary events, offset against extraordinary circumstances, make the story live * Independent *
The writer’s pain – and the beauty of her prose – are very real * Daily Telegraph *
Powerful and moving * Stylist *
Powerful and passionate … unforgettable -- Michael Palin
Heartbreaking -- Esther Freud