settling on 4 stars for this! Overall a solid, very personal memoir. Provided a valuable (and pretty vulnerable) look into Palestinian identity. I was interested in how the different countries he’s lived in, and his lived experience as a refugee, affected his cultural and personal identity especially. (I’m gonna overuse that word a bit in the first part of my review, but it’s for a reason. Give me a moment and some mercy.) There are a couple of points and thoughts about that, especially how identity can be created/manufactured, that are going to stick in my head for a while.

In my general opinion, I liked the second half more(although of course, the first half pulled me in). Maybe I’m biased because it talks more about (intersectional) queer issues, especially as Madian starts doing activism work. But aside from that! I was moved by how Madian and his family’s feelings around loss were written. I loved the poem from one of his brothers that was included. (Probably also biased, as someone who’s lost a father.) 

(Also, I liked the stories the author was able to find about his family tree. Not only were they interesting, but they showed a lot of the resilience and pride in his culture present throughout the novel.)

The structure wasn’t entirely linear, notably towards the end, which I struggled with at points. But this is also a memoir—meant to talk about the emotionally significant parts of someone’s life rather than tell a neatly structured narrative, I’m not going to let it affect my rating.

The only downside I can think of is that unfortunately the writing was too straightforward at times. There were instances where parts in the author’s life would be summarized rather than detailed, which took away some of the impact. Although, how much that style is going to bother the reader definitely varies based on the person.