Sambac Beneath Unlikely Skies

'Sambac Beneath Unlikely Skies' is written for those who had to leave collected remembrances of a childhood in Gaza by a woman far from Palestine's sun and sea. Overindulgent, chaotic and sentimental, Heba Hayek's narrator struggles to navigate life in colder, unfamiliar worlds. She holds tightly to memories of home, hoping they will lead back to her sisters and mothers. Hayek's vignettes explore the methods of survival nurtured by Palestinian women in the face of colonial occupation and patriarchy - the power of community care, and of loving what's not meant to be loved. She reveals the intimate magnificence and quiet devastation of everyday life: a drive on the shore, waxing for the first time with aunties, or peeling oranges while waiting at a checkpoint.