Skip to Main Content (Press Enter)

Mother of Strangers

A Novel

A Novel

A Novel

By Suad Amiry

By Suad Amiry

By Suad Amiry

By Suad Amiry

By Suad Amiry
Read by Amin El Gamal and Lameece Issaq

By Suad Amiry
Read by Amin El Gamal and Lameece Issaq

Best Seller
Hardcover $27.00

Aug 02, 2022 | ISBN 9780593316559

Ebook $13.99

Aug 02, 2022 | ISBN 9780593316566

Audiobook Download $17.50

Aug 02, 2022 | 471 Minutes

All Formats
+
    Mother of Strangers by Suad Amiry
    Hardcover $27.00
    Aug 02, 2022 | ISBN 9780593316559

    Buy from Other Retailers:

    See All Formats (2) +

    Hardcover
    –

    • Hardcover $27.00

      Aug 02, 2022 | ISBN 9780593316559

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    Ebook
    +

    • Ebook

      Aug 02, 2022 | ISBN 9780593316566

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    Audio
    +

    Buy the Audiobook Download:

    About Mother of Strangers

    Set in Jaffa in between 1947 and 1951, this “fable-like historical novel of young love … darkly humorous and touching” (Oprah Daily) is based on a true story during the beginning of the destruction of Palestine and displacement of its people.

    Based on the true story of two Jaffa teenagers, Mother of Strangers follows the daily lives of Subhi, a fifteen-year-old mechanic, and Shams, the thirteen-year-old student he hopes to marry one day. In this prosperous and cosmopolitan port city, with its bustling markets, cinemas, and cafés on the hills overlooking the Mediter­ranean Sea, we meet many other unforgettable charac­ters as well, including Khawaja Michael, the elegant and successful owner of orange groves above the harbor; Mr. Hassan, the tailor who makes Subhi’s treasured English suit, which he hopes will change his life; and the very mischievous and outrageous Uncle Habeeb, who insists on introducing Subhi to the local bordello.
     
    With a thriving orange export business, Jaffa had always been a city welcoming to outsiders—the “Mother of Strangers”—where Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived peacefully together. Once the bombardment of the city begins in April 1948, Suad Amiry gives us the grim but fascinating details of the shock, panic, and destruc­tion that ensues. Jaffa becomes unrecognizable, with neighborhoods flattened, families removed from their homes and separated, and those who remain in constant danger of arrest and incarceration. Most of the popula­tion flees eastward to Jordan or by sea to Lebanon in the north or to Egypt and Gaza in the south. Subhi and Shams will never see each other again.
     
    Suad Amiry has written a vivid and devastating ac­count of a seminal moment in the history of the Middle East—the beginning of the end of Palestine and a por­trait of a city irrevocably changed.

    About Mother of Strangers

    Set in Jaffa in between 1947 and 1951, this “fable-like historical novel of young love … darkly humorous and touching” (Oprah Daily) is based on a true story during the beginning of the destruction of Palestine and displacement of its people.

    Based on the true story of two Jaffa teenagers, Mother of Strangers follows the daily lives of Subhi, a fifteen-year-old mechanic, and Shams, the thirteen-year-old student he hopes to marry one day. In this prosperous and cosmopolitan port city, with its bustling markets, cinemas, and cafés on the hills overlooking the Mediter­ranean Sea, we meet many other unforgettable charac­ters as well, including Khawaja Michael, the elegant and successful owner of orange groves above the harbor; Mr. Hassan, the tailor who makes Subhi’s treasured English suit, which he hopes will change his life; and the very mischievous and outrageous Uncle Habeeb, who insists on introducing Subhi to the local bordello.
     
    With a thriving orange export business, Jaffa had always been a city welcoming to outsiders—the “Mother of Strangers”—where Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived peacefully together. Once the bombardment of the city begins in April 1948, Suad Amiry gives us the grim but fascinating details of the shock, panic, and destruc­tion that ensues. Jaffa becomes unrecognizable, with neighborhoods flattened, families removed from their homes and separated, and those who remain in constant danger of arrest and incarceration. Most of the popula­tion flees eastward to Jordan or by sea to Lebanon in the north or to Egypt and Gaza in the south. Subhi and Shams will never see each other again.
     
    Suad Amiry has written a vivid and devastating ac­count of a seminal moment in the history of the Middle East—the beginning of the end of Palestine and a por­trait of a city irrevocably changed.

    About Mother of Strangers

    Set in Jaffa in between 1947 and 1951, this “fable-like historical novel of young love … darkly humorous and touching” (Oprah Daily) is based on a true story during the beginning of the destruction of Palestine and displacement of its people.

    Based on the true story of two Jaffa teenagers, Mother of Strangers follows the daily lives of Subhi, a fifteen-year-old mechanic, and Shams, the thirteen-year-old student he hopes to marry one day. In this prosperous and cosmopolitan port city, with its bustling markets, cinemas, and cafés on the hills overlooking the Mediter­ranean Sea, we meet many other unforgettable charac­ters as well, including Khawaja Michael, the elegant and successful owner of orange groves above the harbor; Mr. Hassan, the tailor who makes Subhi’s treasured English suit, which he hopes will change his life; and the very mischievous and outrageous Uncle Habeeb, who insists on introducing Subhi to the local bordello.
     
    With a thriving orange export business, Jaffa had always been a city welcoming to outsiders—the “Mother of Strangers”—where Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived peacefully together. Once the bombardment of the city begins in April 1948, Suad Amiry gives us the grim but fascinating details of the shock, panic, and destruc­tion that ensues. Jaffa becomes unrecognizable, with neighborhoods flattened, families removed from their homes and separated, and those who remain in constant danger of arrest and incarceration. Most of the popula­tion flees eastward to Jordan or by sea to Lebanon in the north or to Egypt and Gaza in the south. Subhi and Shams will never see each other again.
     
    Suad Amiry has written a vivid and devastating ac­count of a seminal moment in the history of the Middle East—the beginning of the end of Palestine and a por­trait of a city irrevocably changed.

    Read An Excerpt

    Read An Excerpt

    Read An Excerpt

    Listen to a sample from Mother of Strangers

    Also by Suad Amiry

    Sharon and My Mother-in-Law
    See all books by Suad Amiry

    Also by Suad Amiry

    Sharon and My Mother-in-Law
    See all books by Suad Amiry

    Also by Suad Amiry

    Sharon and My Mother-in-Law
    See all books by Suad Amiry

    About Suad Amiry

    SUAD AMIRY is a writer and an architect. She is the author of six works of nonfiction, including Sharon and My Mother-in-Law, which was awarded the Viareggio-Versilia International Prize in 2004, and Golda Slept Here, which was awarded the Nonino… More about Suad Amiry

    About Suad Amiry

    SUAD AMIRY is a writer and an architect. She is the author of six works of nonfiction, including Sharon and My Mother-in-Law, which was awarded the Viareggio-Versilia International Prize in 2004, and Golda Slept Here, which was awarded the Nonino… More about Suad Amiry

    About Suad Amiry

    SUAD AMIRY is a writer and an architect. She is the author of six works of nonfiction, including Sharon and My Mother-in-Law, which was awarded the Viareggio-Versilia International Prize in 2004, and Golda Slept Here, which was awarded the Nonino… More about Suad Amiry

    Product Details

    Category: Historical Fiction | Literary Fiction

    Hardcover | $27.00
    Published by Pantheon
    Aug 02, 2022 | 304 Pages | 5-1/2 x 8-1/4 | ISBN 9780593316559

    Category: Historical Fiction | Literary Fiction

    Ebook | $13.99
    Published by Pantheon
    Aug 02, 2022 | 304 Pages | ISBN 9780593316566

    Category: Historical Fiction | Literary Fiction | Audiobooks

    Audiobook Download | $17.50
    Published by Random House Audio
    Aug 02, 2022 | 471 Minutes | ISBN 9780593628669
    YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

    Praise

    A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR from NPR

    “Toward the beginning of this novel, Subhi – “the best mechanic in town,” despite being only 15 – is called to fix the well of a local citrus magnate. When he arrives at the grove, he is taken aback by how different the city of Jaffa looks from way up high; how seeing it from this vantage point must affect one’s hopes, fears, politics and loyalties. That sense of perspective-shifting carries throughout the book. The characters force readers to think about how our desires change when our settings do and how expansive (or limited) our sense of reality might be.”
    —“Books We Love 2022,” NPR

    “[A] moving story. . . . Mother of Strangers describes the price paid in human lives when exclusivist states are created violently.” —Middle East Books Review

    “[Mother of Strangers] invites readers to consider the human cost of the ongoing, tragic conflict in the Middle East. As always, the past is not past.”
    —Washington Independent Review of Books

    “Based on a true story, Mother of Strangers is a fable-like historical novel of young love . . . Darkly humorous and touching . . . We’re shown this entire messy, glorious universe that existed before war rained down.”
    —Oprah Daily

    “A powerful story of love, loss, and the destruction of a nation.”
    —Booklist, starred review

    “Stirring . . . achingly alive . . . Amiry’s eye-opening story will keep readers turning the pages.”
    —Publishers Weekly

    “I was bedazzled by Mother of Strangers. How extraordinarily brave to weave a story about the destruction of one’s city, the displacement of family—separating lovers young and old—and the beginning of the end of Palestine. I loved that Suad Amiry based her novel on a true story. I loved the humor as I clutched my heart.”
    —Hanan al Shaykh, author of Beirut Blues
     
    “Mother Of Strangers is a passionate and a deeply moving story of the price Palestinians paid for the creation of Israel.”
    —Michael Palin, author, actor, and member of Monty Python

    Table Of Contents

    Part I
    Subhi
    1 The Best Mechanic in Town (Jaffa, June 1947) 3
    2 The Promised English Suit 12
    3 Jaffa’s Orange Groves (Bayyarat Yafa) 19
    4 To Have or Not to Have the Promised Suit 25
    5 Sugar Daddy 35
    6 Three Green Notes and One Red (July 1947) 39
    7 The Grand Suit Tour 47
    8 English Pride 54
    9 A Suit Etched on Paper 61
    10 From the Fools’ Café to the Intellectuals’ Café and that of the Fishermen 67
    11 Café il Inshirah: The Intellectuals’ Café 71
    12 From Boyhood to Manhood 77
    13 At the Brothel 83
    14 Mawsim il Nabi Rubin (August– September 1947) 87
    15 A Temporary Tent City 91
    16 The Kisweh Celebrations from Jaffa to il Nabi Rubin 95
    17 The Kite Maker 100
    18 The Love of My Life 107

    Part II
    Back to Jaffa
    19 Post- Vacation Blues (Jaffa, September 1947) 117
    20 Death Oranges (Sunday, January 4, 1948) 123
    21 A Train Robbery (end of March 1948) 128
    22 Jerusalem’s Macabre Parade (April 8, 1948) 132

    Part III
    New Masters
    23 The Day After (Jaffa, May 1948) 143
    24 New Masters 149
    25 The “Disputed” Suit Interrogations 157
    26 At Jaffa’s Port 163
    27 Disputed 167
    28 Back to Being the Best Mechanic in No- Town 174

    Part IV
    Shams
    29 A Surrogate Mother (il Lyd, May 1948) 183
    30 A “Jewish” Cow (One Month Earlier, il Lyd, July 1948) 192
    31 The Cow Interrogation: Big Crimes, Small Crimes 198
    32 Someone at the Door 204
    33 A Muslim Mother 214
    34 An Escape Plan 221
    35 Subhi: In Search of a Past, in Search of a Future 229
    36 A Few Knocks at the Gate (Jaffa, 1950) 235
    37 New Neighbors (Jaffa, 1951) 241
    38 A Friendly Request 255
    Epilogue (Jaffa, January 2018) 265

    Author’s Note 269
    Acknowledgments 273
    Arabic to English Glossary 275

    Looking for More Great Reads?
    21 Books You’ve Been Meaning to Read
    Get the latest updates about Suad Amiry
    And go from well-read to best read with book recs, deals and more in your inbox every week.
    And go from well-read to best read with book recs, deals and more in your inbox every week.
    By clicking SIGN UP, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Penguin Random House’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
    Dismiss
    Thanks!
    Something awesome is on its way.
    Back to Top

    Visit other sites in the Penguin Random House Network

    Raise kids who love to read

    Brightly

    Raise kids who love to read
    Today's Top Books

    Today's Top Books

    Want to know what people are actually reading right now?
    An online magazine for today’s home cook

    TASTE

    An online magazine for today’s home cook