Palestinian Blues

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I was born in Gaza, grew up in Kuwait, attended university in the United States, and later worked as a philosophy teacher and school administrator in Jordan and Bahrain. In 2009, I began writing a blog titled Notes from Hamala (named after the area where I live in Bahrain), primarily for friends and family. My first book, Knowledge According to Gardener (2014), grew from these writings to help my students engage with philosophical ideas through storytelling. Palestinian Blues emerged from the same source. At its core, it is a long conversation between an aunt and her nephew. I developed the aunt's voice by drawing on the voices of my five maternal aunts and imagining them as women well-versed in philosophy. Here is what Kirkus Reviews wrote about Palestinian Blues: "Zanoun's novel, framed as a fictional memoir, depicts life in Gaza as experienced by the "blockade generation." And, "Zooz's memoirs are presented by Joe, who annotates them with footnotes-he calls them "Joe Kaplan spots"-which are partially designed to defend himself from criticism and also effectively provide readers with a running commentary. This is a very brief work-just over 100 pages-but it's one that's delightfully offbeat and painfully poignant. A vivid and original novel of the Middle East that's humorous and insightful."