Amal Rifa'i and Odelia Ainbinder
150 pages
Reason for Reading:
Triple 8 Challenge, Book Around the World, Expanding Horizons Challenge.
Amal Rifa'i(a pseudonym used for her protection) and Odelia Ainbinder are teenagers who met through a student exchange program to Switzerland. Amal is Palestinian and Odelia is Israeli. Their first meeting wasn't great but through the mediation of a foreign correspondant, they were able to start a frank discussion about what it is like for each side in the conflict that rages in their homeland.
I admit that I don't understand a lot of the history that is behind the situation in the Middle East. However, I did learn some things from this short little book. It has a chronology of events to help and a glossary for terms that the average person may not understand. I enjoyed hearing the differing perspectives of Odelia and Amal and though I am still somewhat confused, I found this to be a worthwhile book. (3.5/5)
Monday, February 25, 2008
We Just Want to Live Here
Posted by Amy at 8:50 PM
Labels: Book Around the World, Expanding Horizons Challenge, Triple 8 Challenge
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5 comments:
This sounds like an intriguing book. I have started to read The Sister - so far, so good though the author uses a lot of descriptions...
Have a great day!
Jill
It does sound like an intriguing premise. Did it ever mention why they used a pseudonym for the Palestinian girl? (That part made me curious...)
Jill - It is. It helped me understand a bit about the history there but it is such a deep subject and it is a short book.
Melissa- Her parents would only let her speak if she used a pseudonym because they felt that a Palestinian girl speaking against Israelis would suffer reprisal.
I tagged you!
http://trishsdiary.wordpress.com/2008/02/26/6-word-memoir-meme/
I found you through LibraryThing. This sounds like a good book! I just reviewed a great one on Iraq if you need to fill that for your trip around the world. It's for a great book called I'jaam, and I'm giving one away on my blog at carpelibrisreviews.com
I hope I left this link right - if not, sorry! I can't quite remember how to do it...
Love the blog's look, by the way! Bookmarking you...
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