Shortlisted for the 2024 International Prize for Arabic Fiction (Arab Booker), «The Seventh Heaven of Jerusalem» by Palestinian writer Osama al-Eissa»

The Seventh Heaven of Jerusalem takes us to 1970s Jerusalem, when the city is suffering a famine in the wake of a second war in twenty years, and is struggling to come to terms with its trauma under occupation. The novel celebrates place and characters living in the city of holy texts and destiny; yet it also questions unchallenged assumptions, popular slogans and even the sacrifices of the early freedom fighters who – despite the enormity of those sacrifices – failed to liberate the city. The Jerusalem portrayed in heroic songs and official pronouncements is not the Jerusalem of the people, who always end up paying the price. Nor do those versions represent the city trapped in roughly a square kilometre of walls for centuries, enduring incurable wounds enduring incurable wounds, and the rule of one occupier after another, each more violent than the last. This novel does not show Jerusalem as written by the victors. It is, rather, the intractable Jerusalem which is described here, with its inhabitants from many different races and backgrounds; the other Jerusalem of ordinary, defeated people. - (arabicfiction.org)