An actress visiting her sister in Haifa, Israel, agrees to play Queen Gertrude in an Arabic-language production of Hamlet in Enter Ghost, a provocative international drama by award-winning author Isabella Hammad. Narrated by Sonia Nasir, a Dutch-Palestinian with ingénue looks and a moderately successful career on the London stage, Hammad's enthralling second novel expertly navigates tensions in present-day Arab-Israeli relations with rare literary grace and insight.
Sonia and her sister, Haneen, were raised in England and spent childhood summers at their grandparents' sprawling home in Haifa, the Nasir family one of the fortunate ones not forcibly ousted during the '48 war. Sonia remained in England while Haneen moved to Israel. Haneen leads a quiet life commuting to her teaching job at the University of Tel Aviv, in contrast to Sonia, a fixture on the theater party scene and the ex-mistress of a prominent, and married, director.
Despairing over the end of the affair, Sonia yearns for connection with Haneen, an opening in which to bare her soul, but the sisters fall into predictable patterns of defensiveness and hurt, the "complicated sediment" of which goes deep into their shared past. When Haneen's charismatic friend Mariam invites Sonia to join the cast of the Hamlet production she is directing in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Sonia accepts as a favor to Mariam. Ultimately, though, the decision is a fortuitous one, leading to an uplifting personal transformation and a reconciliation with Haneen neither of them could have anticipated.
For Mariam, the play is an act of artistic resistance and a show of Palestinian cultural unity, with actors from Bethlehem, Ramallah, Nablus and Haifa. The production is imperiled when Israeli soldiers confiscate the elaborate set and detain Mariam's politician brother, Salim, a member of the Israeli parliament, suspicious of his motives and involvement with the production. As suspense builds over the play's future, cast members find themselves unifying around their common goal of bringing Hamlet to the West Bank.
Exquisitely illuminated by the author's tender writing, Sonia's experience of the daily tectonic strain between occupier and occupied, a "throwback to the intifada summers of [her] adolescence," leads to a new, deeper appreciation of her ancient heritage and her natural place in it. Hammad's first novel, the sweeping historical masterpiece The Parisian, made an impressive debut on the global literary stage. Enter Ghost is destined for a similarly exuberant and well-deserved reception. --Shahina Piyarali, reviewer
Shelf Talker: A London actress joins the cast of an Arabic-language production of Hamlet in the West Bank in this provocative international drama about the power of political resistance through art.