Leyla K. King's absorbing debut memoir, Daughters of Palestine, chronicles the stories of the women in her family against the backdrop of violence and upheaval in the Middle East. Drawn from King's audio recordings of conversations with her Christian Palestinian grandmother, Bahi, the book immerses readers in the lives of Leyla; Bahi; Bahi's mother, Aniiseh; and the other women in their family, contrasting intimate dramas of marriage and motherhood with the larger political landscape.
"We start with laughing now," King writes, quoting Bahi as they begin their conversations. While the narrative contains no small measure of grief--children separated from their parents, deaths of family members, forced immigration--King's memoir also shines with the quiet joy of hope and strong family bonds. As she traces her relatives' journeys from their hometown of Haifa to Ramallah, Damascus, Beirut, and eventually the U.S., King also records the shifting cultural mores that made it possible for her mother, grandmother, and other relatives to find love and build rich, flourishing lives.
King, an Episcopal priest now living in Texas, connects her family's narrative to the complicated history of the Middle East, including the creation of the state of Israel, the civil war in Lebanon, and the impact of those events on Palestinian Christians. Through overlapping vignettes, she creates a colorful mosaic of her family's experiences, highlighting their courage, faithfulness, humor, and deep love for one another. Daughters of Palestine illuminates the Palestinian Christian experience and celebrates one family's resilience. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams