Virtual author event with Susan Abulhawa set Aug. 26

Author Susan Abulhawa will participate in a live virtual discussion of her book “Against the Loveless World” with Goethe Medalist and writer Zukiswa Wanner at 5 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 26.

The discussion is hosted by the Lewes Public Library and Browseabout Books. 

Written in Abulhawa’s distinctive prose, the powerful novel presents a searing, darkly funny and wholly unique portrait of a Palestinian woman who refuses to be a victim. The discussion will focus on some of the themes in the book, including sisterhood, exile and home, food, music and literature.

As Nahr sits locked away in solitary confinement, she spends her days reflecting on the dramatic events that landed her in prison in a country she barely knows. Born in Kuwait in the ‘70s to Palestinian refugees, she dreamed of falling in love with the perfect man, raising children and possibly opening her own beauty salon.

Instead, the man she thinks she loves jilts her after a brief marriage, her family teeters on the brink of poverty, she’s forced to prostitute herself, and the U.S. invasion of Iraq makes her a refugee, as her parents had been. After trekking through another temporary home in Jordan, she lands in Palestine, where she finally makes a home and falls in love. Her destiny unfolds under Israeli occupation.

Susan Abulhawa is a Palestinian-American writer and political activist. She is the author of “Mornings in Jenin,” translated into 30 languages, and “The Blue Between Sky and Water.” Born to refugees of the Six Day War of 1967, she moved to the United States as a teenager, graduated in biomedical science, and established a career in medical science.

In July 2001, Abulhawa founded Playgrounds for Palestine, a non-governmental children’s organization dedicated to upholding the Right to Play for Palestinian children. She lives in Pennsylvania.

Abulhawa will be in conversation with Zukiswa Wanner, who was born in Zambia and is an author, journalist, publisher and curator. In addition to fiction for children and adults, she has published reportage, essays and travelogues which have appeared in international newspapers and magazines.

To register, go to lewes.lib.de.us. “Against the Loveless World” will be for sale at Browseabout Books and available to borrow through the Delaware Libraries system.