(A copy was provided to read and review.)

Jerusalem Stands Alone appears on the market at a controversial moment in the history of this city of endless wars. America recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a move which is celebrated on one side and called “The Slap of the Century” on the other.

Despite the stories here being pure fiction, they offer a very good idea of the craziness and absurdity of the daily life of Jerusalem residents.

The author Mahmoud Shukair uses a unique format for his writing, which is on one hand unusual, exciting and makes for a fast read. Sadly, it also caused this reader quite a bit of confusion. Let me explain….

The whole story is told in short vignettes, often not longer than half a page.
They all are interconnected as the same characters appear and we see how their life in Jerusalem unfolds.
Because of the utter beauty of Shukair’s writing and the poetic quality of it, I felt like looking through the lens of a camera, taking snap shots of interesting sights and getting captivating glimpses into a daily life which is so different from my own.
Except the human beings living there are no different to all other human beings on Earth. They fall in love, they quarrel, they hate, grief, cry, laugh, feel lost, sad or happy, like we all do.

Such is the quality of Palestinian author Shukair’s writing, that some of the short stories, which more often feel like poems, will stay with me for a long time.
Like the one where the narrator tells us the war was two years old when he was born and now he is forty and the war is two years older, which means 42 years of war and still going strong.

Despite the outstanding writing of Shukair, the problem is we find here a vast array of characters, to name but a few:
the narrator watching from his regular spot in the café overlooking the market square,
the husband, who sells his goods as a fishmonger in the market and his wife, who doesn’t want to face that the family is forced to evacuate their home,
their children, one son travelling abroad and one just released from prison,
their daughters, one of them on the brink of womanhood with all the problems which come with it,
the blonde, who is a neighbour from a foreign country,
friends, uncles, aunts, other neighbours, etc.

They all have names, which are very beautiful no doubt, but also for me are difficult to remember all at once and adding to it the story jumps forward and backward in time as well as getting sometimes metaphorical.

To round it off even an excellent and experienced translator like Nicole Fares is unable to fully bridge the gap and the huge difference between Arabic language, which is very descriptive at best and the English language which is often quite the opposite.

This is not an easy read and personally I felt a family tree or list of main characters at the start of the book would have substantially increased my joy of reading it.
Still, Jerusalem Stands Alone is a poetic and tender look at the ancient city under occupation and the daily life of its inhabitants, facing endless political, social and historic tensions. ( )