The warm embrace reading holds us in when we pick a book after some days is a beautiful poem for me. It’s like the goodbyes I never said to words bloom in me as a bond I can’t let go of. The familiar waft of stories is a home I live in. 

I picked The Blue Between Sky And Water. And, God! It’s all the silent echoes in the spaces between sky and water. It’s all the hues of agony between sky and the water. And, the words are all the hues of beauty and faith between the sky and water. “

Within 40 pages, I was on the edge of myself, brimming with torturous imagination and wounded emotion for the people I may never meet. Within 40 pages, my sense of hope was torn apart yet sewn back. And, as I read along, I wanted to settle down in the story, hold each character dearly, and pray by their side, for the grief and hope that caressed their hearts.

Of “swallowing homes”. Of  war “soaking in their skin.” Of prayers immersed in the waft of hope and faith. Of families lost and memories alive. Of Palestine as the truth of the world. Of Palestine drawing the line for the sides people are as a throbbing part of humanity is robbed of their sense of lives, grief, mourning, celebrating, yet living, as a prayer, for prayer, through prayer. Of prayers as the strongest knots in our hearts spilling through aching lips.

Susan Abulhawa weaves the magic truth is. The magic hope is. The magic realities are. And, the magic stories are. And, this book, deserves all of me. It does. I loved each bit of it. 

Between un-uttered sobs and faithful prayers, weaved stories are a living character. Grieving, smiling and hoping forever. ✨