Mornings in Jenin

"A major writer of our time." --Alice Walker

The 20th anniversary edition of one of the biggest contributions to anglophone Palestinian literature, with over a million copies sold worldwide, featuring a new introduction from Maaza Mengiste.

Mornings in Jenin tells the "powerful and passionate" (Michael Palin, actor and bestselling author) story of Amal, one of three Palestinian siblings, born in the Jenin refugee camp to parents displaced from their ancestral village in 1948 by the newly formed Jewish state.

Amal grows up in the shadow of a family and community shattered by loss--of home, country, heritage. Her brother Ismael is stolen as an infant and raised as an Israeli soldier named David. Her older, beloved brother Yousef is transformed from professor to prisoner to fighter. Through war, occupation, and exile, over the course of six decades, three continents, and four generations, Amal emerges as the family's heart--a girl who was read poetry by her father, a woman who finds love only to lose it in the Sabra and Shatila massacre, and a mother raising her daughter Sara alone in America while carrying the weight of a homeland she cannot reclaim.

When her brother David finally appears, searching for his origins, the three siblings' fractured lives converge in a powerful reckoning with identity, belonging, and the brutal price of a colonial injustice that has defined them all.

Author: Susan Abulhawa
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Published: 09/29/2026
Pages: 352
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 8.10h x 5.30w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9781668242070

About the Author
susan abulhawa is a novelist, poet, essayist, scientist, mother, and activist. She was born to refugees of the Six-Day War of 1967, when her family's land was seized and Israel captured what remained of Palestine. Her debut novel, Mornings in Jenin, translated into thirty languages, has sold over a million copies worldwide and is considered a classic in Palestinian literature. Her other works include The Blue Between Sky and Water and Against the Loveless World, an Aspen Words Literary Prize and Atheneum Prize finalist and winner of the Arab American Book Award and the Palestine Book Award, along with, most recently, the short story collection she edited of writers from Gaza, Every Moment is a Life. abulhawa is the founder of Playgrounds for Palestine, a children's organization dedicated to uplifting Palestinian children.