‘A book I devoured in a single sitting.’ — Middle East Eye

‘Hayek … is one of the most talented Palestinian writers writing in English today.’ — The Electronic Intifada

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.

With brilliance and grace, 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. Her reflections reveal the intimate magnificence and quiet devastation of everyday life: a family drive on the shore, waxing for the first time with aunties, or peeling figs while waiting at a checkpoint.

‘Beautiful stories of growing up in Gaza.’ — The White Review

‘A tender, beautiful book.’ — The New Arab

‘A book I devoured in a single sitting.’ — Middle East Eye

‘Hayek … is one of the most talented Palestinian writers writing in English today.’ — The Electronic Intifada

‘Unflinching in its raw honesty … this will not disappoint.’ — The Markaz Review

‘Alight with humour and shared pain.’ — Words Without Borders

‘Hayek shares the poignant logic of exile through fragmented stories of a girlhood.’ — Mondoweiss

‘A searing work of growing up in war-torn Palestine … a succour to such souls who have had similar experiences.’ — Feminism in India

‘About finding and making love and life through and within impossibility.’ — Full Stop

‘Delicate and powerful … This work will remain with you long after reading.’ — Rafeef Ziadah, poet, activist and co-editor of Revolutionary Feminisms

‘A genuine, bittersweet taste of Gaza. I dwelled on it like a child searching for familiarity and found godly comfort, tears and joy.’ — Meera Adnan, Palestinian fashion designer

‘Each character feels as familiar as kin, with Gaza as the effervescent, maligned and transcendent protagonist.’ — Zena Agha, author of Objects from April and May

‘An act of restoration and celebration. Heba’s light-footed, lyrical writing dazzles with its depth.’ — Rebecca Tamás, author of Strangers

‘Heba reaches for home through pastries named for little kisses, and I am torn apart.’ — Aisha Sabatini Sloan, author of Borealis

‘Heba’s writing radiates … in glittering prose that cuts through bone.’ — Akil Kumarasamy, author of Half Gods

‘A timeless expression of love and reckoning.’ — TaraShea Nesbit, author of Beheld

‘Tender and elegant … establishes [Hayek] as a critical new voice on gender, family and war.’ — Daisy Hernández, co-editor of Colonize This!

‘A beautiful and emotionally charged collection … Heba’s clarity effortlessly draws the reader into her world.’ — Yara Hawari, author of The Stone House

In Palestine with Books — Words Without Borders

REVIEW: Sambac searches for ‘home in exile’ — The Electronic Intifada

REVIEW: War as setting and protagonist — Mondoweiss

Palestine Book Awards shortlist 2022 — Palestine Book Awards

REVIEW: In Search of a Home Disappearing — Feminism in India

REVIEW: Sambac Beneath Unlikely Skies — Full Stop

The best books by Arab authors in 2021 — The New Arab

Books of the Year — The White Review

2021’s best books — Middle East Eye

EXTRACTS: ‘Did You Know’ and ‘Special Plants’ — Salvage, Issue 11, Autumn–Winter 2021

REVIEW: Heba Hayek’s Gaza Memories — The Markaz Review

EXTRACT: Guns and Figs — The Markaz Review

EXTRACT: A Carry-On Full of Pictures and Letters — Wasafiri

The Distant Here — Shubbak Festival

Shubbak 2021: 8 must-see events at this year’s festival — The Evening Standard

29 July 2021
Paperback / 9781914221026
ebook / 9781914221088
198 × 129 mm
130 pages