{"product_id":"palestinian-walks-raja-shehadeh-9781416569664","title":"Palestinian Walks: Forays Into a Vanishing Landscape","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"A rare historical insight into the tragic changes taking place in Palestine.\" --Jimmy Carter\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom one of Palestine's leading writers, a lyrical, elegiac account of one man's wanderings through the landscape he loves--once pristine, now forever changed by settlements and walls--updated with a new afterword by the author.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"I often come to walk in these hills,\" I said to the man who was doing all the talking and seemed to be the commander. \"In fact I was once here with my wife, it was 1999, and some of your soldiers shot at us.\"\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"It was over on that side,\" the soldier pointed out. \"I was there,\" he said, smiling.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen Raja Shehadeh first started hill walking in Palestine, in the late 1970s, he was not aware that he was traveling through a vanishing landscape. In recent years, his hikes have become less than bucolic and sometimes downright dangerous. That is because his home is Ramallah, on the Palestinian West Bank, and the landscape he traverses is now the site of a tense standoff between his fellow Palestinians and settlers newly arrived from Israel. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In this original and evocative book, we accompany Raja on six walks taken between 1978 and 2006. The earlier forays are peaceful affairs, allowing our guide to meditate at length on the character of his native land, a terrain of olive trees on terraced hillsides, luxuriant valleys carved by sacred springs, carpets of wild iris and hyacinth and ancient monasteries built more than a thousand years ago. Shehadeh's love for this magical place saturates his renderings of its history and topography. But latterly, as seemingly endless concrete is poured to build settlements and their surrounding walls, he finds the old trails are now impassable and the countryside he once traversed freely has become contested ground. He is harassed by Israeli border patrols, watches in terror as a young hiking companion picks up an unexploded missile and even, on one occasion when accompanied by his wife, comes under prolonged gunfire. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Amid the many and varied tragedies of the Middle East, the loss of a simple pleasure such as the ability to roam the countryside at will may seem a minor matter. But in \u003ci\u003ePalestinian Walks, \u003c\/i\u003e Raja Shehadeh's elegy for his lost footpaths becomes a heartbreaking metaphor for the deprivations of an entire people estranged from their land.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Raja Shehadeh\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1416569669\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781416569664\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Scribner Book Company\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/03\/2008\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 224\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.43lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 7.95h x 5.33w x 0.64d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 03\/03\/2008 pg. 35\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e 04\/01\/2008 pg. 22\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 05\/15\/2008 pg. 122\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 05\/01\/2008 pg. 478\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew Yorker (The)\u003c\/i\u003e 06\/09\/2008 pg. 85\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLJ Best Books of Year\u003c\/i\u003e 12\/15\/2008 pg. 65\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLJ Best Books of Year\u003c\/i\u003e 12\/01\/2008 pg. 65","brand":"Raja Shehadeh","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44045846544639,"sku":"9781416569664","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_97c30145-f2b2-4f7d-aca4-0f0c3b584986.jpg?v=1684981114","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/palestinian-walks-raja-shehadeh-9781416569664","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}