About The Book

Sayed Kashua has been praised by the New York Times as “a master of subtle nuance in dealing with both Arab and Jewish society.” An Israeli-Palestinian who lived in Jerusalem for most of his life, Kashua started writing in Hebrew with the hope of creating one story that both Palestinians and Israelis could relate to, rather than two that cannot coexist together. He devoted his novels and his satirical weekly column published in Haaretz to telling the Palestinian story and exploring the contradictions of modern Israel, while also capturing the nuances of everyday family life in all its tenderness and chaos.

Over the last few years, that weekly column of humorous personal essays has been among the most widely read and beloved columns in Israel. With an intimate tone fueled by deep-seated apprehension and a razor-sharp ironic wit, Kashua has been documenting his own life as well as that of society at large: he writes about his children’s upbringing and encounters with racism, about fatherhood and married life, the Jewish-Arab conflict, his professional ambitions, and–more than anything—his love of literature. From these circumstances, Kashua brings forth a series of brilliant, caustic, wry, and fearless reflections on social and cultural dynamics as experienced by someone who straddles two societies. Native, a selection of essays written between 2006 and 2014, reads like an unrestrained, profoundly thoughtful personal journal.

Praise

“Kashua simply narrates, column after column, the impossibility of living as an Arab in the Jewish state. Sure, the columns are still clever and entertaining in their left-handed antiheroism. They succeed in being symbolic without dissonance or figurative effort . . . This is among the most justified collections of newspaper columns ever published in Israel.” —Haaretz

“One of the most celebrated satirists in Hebrew literature . . . [Kashua] has an acerbic, dry wit and a talent for turning everyday events into apocalyptic scenarios.” —Philadelphia Inquirer

“Kashua has devoted his career to telling the stories of Palestinian citizens of Israel . . . His writing, however, is principally devoted to showing Israelis what life as a minority is like, and he does so in an interesting way. The columns collected in this book are funny and self-deprecating, but with a kick.” —Winnipeg Free Press

“A rare window into the effects of Israel’s political climate on the personal lives of its residents . . . Though [Kashua’s] stories center on mundane moments (holidays with family, trips to the doctor, a quarrel with his wife), they are spiked with subtle social commentary–often funny, occasionally searing . . . the English translations now offer American readers a glimpse into everyday life in a region often portrayed in the media only in terms of violence and conflict.” —Shelf Awareness

Excerpt

This week I discovered that I love revolutions, at least on television. They have a way of making most existential concerns disappear. When there’s a revolution in Egypt, you can’t really get depressed about not knowing what happens after you die. When there are millions out on the streets, that’s not the time to start panicking about contracting swine flu.

“Quiet!” I shouted at my daughter when she asked me to give her a ride to her music class earlier in the week. ‘music? They’re bringing down Mubarak and you want to talk to me about music? Do you know what it is to get Mubarak out?”

“Hey, maybe you could get the dishes out of the sink,” suggested my wife.

“What’s wrong with you?” I barely turned my head away from the screen when I responded. “You want me to miss the event that’s about to change the face of the region just because of a few dirty dishes? People are dying in the streets and you want me to take care of some dishes.”

“Fine,” she said.

“I’ll take her to her class and you keep on starting revolutions from the sofa. Just watch where you spit out the sunflower seeds.”