As an invading army approaches, a child is separated from his family and wanders into an underground world ruled by insects. A tree begins sprouting peculiar leaves. A young woman mysteriously appears and fixes herself to a broken family. A boy is hurtled through light to an unknown time and destination. A small bird destroys a precious art collection.

In short fictions spanning multiple genres, a wondrous story of a Palestinian village unfolds over 200 years. At the collection’s heart is a novella about a family dealing with the consequences of history during Intifadat al-Aqsa. In a landscape that hums with beasts, plants, light and God, N. A. Mansour’s characters grapple with their relationships with each other and with the natural world. Through their strange and mystical experiences, personal and collective, the roles of Islam, art and literature in Palestinian liberation are all questioned and reimagined.