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In my mother's footsteps : a Palestinian refugee returns home / Mona Hajjar Halaby.

by Halaby, Mona, author.

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London : Thread, 2021.

Halaby, Mona -- Travel -- Palestine.

Refugees, Palestinian Arab -- Biography.

Refugees -- Palestine.

Palestine -- Description and travel.

9781800196124 (paperback) :

1800196121 (paperback)

289 pages : black and white illustrations, map ; 20 cm

Returning home -- Welcome to my country! -- My mother's daughter -- An ordinary Palestinian -- Forgiving and forgetting -- Stars aligned -- Between here and there -- Settling in -- Belonging -- Seeds are sown -- Opening my shutters -- I like to punch -- Trauma -- Chicken in a bag -- His fear is my fear, too -- Tender green shoots -- David's visit -- Smell the air -- Determination -- Rusty hinge -- No walls in the sky -- Connecting and reconnecting -- Hopes and dreams for Palestine -- Follow orders or rebel -- Time travel in the Old City -- Taking ownership -- Like-minded people -- Our homes -- Forgive me, Hajjeh -- Sleuthing with Ariela -- Fragments from childhood -- Bringing about change -- Making a difference -- How to topple a bully -- The indomitable Palestinian spirit -- My mother's visit -- Bitter oranges -- Repeated rituals -- The torch -- Nabka survivor-this is my home -- Endemic -- "I come from there... and remember" -- Reclaiming the past -- Tempted to take flight -- Palestine, our daily bread -- Untethered -- Final vows -- The personal is political -- The key -- Epilogue.

Refugees are like seeds that scatter in the wind, and land in different soils that become their reluctant homes' my mother once told me. As a small child, I looked up at my mother and clutched her hand. The puffiness of her palm reminded me of a loaf of warm pita bread, and when she laced her fingers into mine like a pretzel, I felt safe. I would have walked with her to the ends of the earth. When Mona moved from California to Ramallah to teach conflict resolution in a school for a year, she kept a journal. Within its pages, she wrote her impressions of her homeland, a place she had only experienced through her mother's memories. As she settled into her teaching role, getting to know her students and the challenges they faced living in a militarized, occupied town, Mona also embarked on a personal pilgrimage to find her mother's home in Jerusalem. Mona had dreamed of being guided by her mother down the old souqs, and the leafy streets of her neighborhood, listening to the muezzin's call for prayer and the medley of church bells. But after fifty-nine years of exile, it was Mona's mother who held her daughter's hand as they visited Jerusalem together, walking the narrow cobblestone alleys of the Old City. Their roles were reversed. Mona had become her Mama's legs and her memory - and the one to tell her story going forward. In My Mother's Footsteps is a moving and heart-rendering journey of a daughter discovering her roots and recovering her mother's beloved past. It's also an intimate and tender account of daily life for Palestinians as never seen before. For fans of The Bookseller of Kabul and The Beekeeper of Aleppo.

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