? UNDER THE LAMPLIGHT-

I Saw Ramallah is a story about exile, but more importantly, it’s a story about return. In 1966, Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti traveled to Cairo to pursue higher education. After completing his studies, he sought to go home only to find himself barred from entering Palestine — a side-effect of the Six-Day War.

Like many others exiled from their homeland, he was forced into the diaspora. In his memoir, he documents his return to Palestine after 30 years of displacement.

The memoir is not deliberately political, though the Palestinian condition cannot be separated from politics. It focuses on delivering, with great emotion and acuity, the experience of exile and terrifying unfamiliarity of returning to a home that has been changed beyond recognition. Joy, grief, and anger are riddled throughout the book as Barghouti chronicles his overwhelming survey of the destruction wreaked by Israeli occupation.

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