Sahar Mustafah on writing about heritage in a time of genocide

On this episode of Madison BookBeat, host Sara Batkie is joined by author Sahar Mustafah to talk about her new novel, The Slightest Green. In the middle of dinner one evening, Intisar Jaber receives a phone call that will upend her quiet life in Chicago: her father is dying and she must go to Palestine to pay her final respects. But Intisar hasn't seen or heard from Hafez for nearly two decades, ever since he abandoned her and her mother to join the resistance. After a fateful mission, Hafez was thrown into the notorious Gahana Prison to serve a life sentence—permanently removed from her life. As soon as Intisar arrives in his village of Bayt al-Hawa, she discovers what it means to be a stranger in her ancestral land, the inheritance of loss, and the high price of freedom. Meanwhile, Hafez’s mother Sundus battles to save the home that she built with her husband from thieving hands. Will Intisar, her estranged granddaughter, help Sundus fight to reclaim it? Can they close the gaping distance between them before it’s too late? The daughter of immigrants, Sahar Mustafah explores her Palestinian heritage in her writing. She earned her MFA in Fiction from Columbia College where she was a Follett Graduate Scholar. Her debut novel, The Beauty of Your Face, was named a The New York Times Book Review Notable Books of 2020 and one of Marie Claire Magazine’s 2020 Best Fiction by Women. It was a Finalist for the 2021 Palestine Book Award, long-listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Award, and chosen for the Los Angeles Times “United We Read.” Her recent fiction is featured in Stories from the Center of the World: New Middle East Fiction and The View from Gaza published in The Massachusetts Review. She was awarded a 2023 Jack Hazard Fellowship from New Literary Project and an Illinois Arts Council Grant. Mustafah writes and teaches outside of Chicago. Sahar will be in town to discuss The Slightest Green at A Room of One’s Own on May 17th.