I absolutely love this collection of eighteen short stories focusing on female experiences in Palestinian culture, the writing was beautiful, each story was unique in its own way and the illustrations at the beginning of each story definitely added to the charm. Highly recommended!

As always, I love a collection of short stories, especially from cultures other than my own. I feel like short stories are a better way to understand some cultural niches because they tell tales of everyday life that you might not know or learn about when studying a culture as a whole. This was a quick read and I was enjoying myself the whole time. I read it on my commute and each story was the perfect length.

Thank you NetGalley and Neem Tree Press for providing ARC of this title.
This is my first time reading about Palestinians without them being clearly oppressed. And yet, the stories of them would never really be free from occupations. These stories are interesting, however these aren’t my cup of tea since I don’t really get what the stories are trying to tell.

"I didn´t read great books in childhood. There were no great books to be read in shacks that pleaded just to survive from one flood to the next. I sneaked more than once into the modest library my uncle kept in a little house in a village that would soon be swallowed up by the earth, never to return. And into a bookmobile that my mother insists to this day never existed. There were no great books in my childhood. But there were women as great as books."

Women and girls, of all ages, living in a Bedouin village in Palestine ("village of Dhail El E'rj from which she [Helawy], and all its other residents, were forcibly displaced by the Israeli occupation in the 1990s") and rebelling, in their small ways, against patriarchal constraints.

The collection is a mixed bag, as they say – some stories were too loose, almost instantly forgettable, more vignettes than stories; others were good, with a stronger frame and better execution. The stories I loved best had a similar structure: Helawy would begin with the aftermath of an event and then go back, through a kind of commentary revealing societal expectations or norms, to what had happened. "Ali", "W-h-o-r-e", and "The Day My Donkey Died" - stories dealing with marriage and violence against women, were well-rounded, affecting, and some of the favorites.

This is a piercing collection of 18 short stories that highlight Palestinian bedouin identity and amplify Plestinian female voices.

Nancy Roberts in her preface to this collection mentions that the stories come as a reconciliation of Sheikha Helawy with her "Bedouinness". In fact, Helawy displays a strong affirming literary voice through her stories. Her feminist stance is strengthened through her embrace of this "bedouinness". And for me, this makes her literary voice a unique one.

Through the span of 18 stories the focus is on feminist themes. Thestories deal with violence, the notion of honour, objectification of the female body, patriarchal power, the weight of cultural and societalconstraints on the souls and bodies of women, ...

They Fell Like Stars from the Stars is an impactful collection. It stirred in me a spectrum of feelings. I found myself overjoyed and humming with "Umm Kulthum". With "The Door to the Body" and "W.h.o.r.e", I was taken over by fury for how a father or a brother may deal with the female body (of a daughter or a sister) as a burden or a source of shame that must hidden or disposed of. Certain other stories made me either smile or stop for a bit and think.

At the very beginning of the book Sheikha Helawy writes "[t]here were no books in my childhood. But there were women as great as books" and now, with this book I believe we do have a unique literary voice, Helawy's, as great as those women were !

The illustrations in this collection need a special mention; Anna Morrison did not try to oershadow the stories. Her illustrations are in complete harmony with the essence of the stories. Just like the writing voice, they are piercing in their very simplicity!

They Fell Like Stars from the Sky & Other Stories (Sept 2023) is a collection of short stories by Sheikha Helawy and translated from the Arabic by Nancy Roberts. The book also features illustrations by Anna Morrison.

It contains 18 stories/vignettes focusing on the experiences of Bedouin women and girls of Palestine, as they indulge in little acts of resistance against highly patriarchal norms. They are stories of regular women, young and old, trying to live regular lives, showcasing their resilience and courage.

I enjoyed the bite-sized stories, some at only a page long while others go into multiple pages. Most of the stories are akin to entering the characters' private thoughts and consciousnesses, seeing the world from their POV. They're not plot-driven but more like a snapshot of a moment, like in the story ' Pink Dress' where one young girl shaves her legs in order to wear a new pink dress.

My favourites are the first story 'Haifa Assassinated My Braid' and the title story, both featuring courageous girl characters who challenge their Bedoiun traditions.

It's really quite a mixed bag, with some stories having more strength than others, but overall they provide a rare glimpse into the culture and lives of the Bedouin, whom I've personally never read of before this, so this is an important introduction to a people whose voices are seldom heard in mainstream literature.

This collection is a homage to Helawy's own roots. In the translator's preface Roberts states that the Bedouin experiences depicted is that of a forgotten village called Dhail El E'rj from which Helawy and other residents were forcibly displaced by Israeli occupation in the 1990s.

I requested a review copy of #TheyFellLikeStarsFromtheSky from Neem Tree Press on #NetGalley and I'm very thankful to have my request approved. It's a much recommended read, especially with what's happening in 🇵🇸 now. Let's always hear/read their stories.

Neem Tree Press is fantastic at bringing translated works to the fore and They Fell Like Stars From the Sky & Other Stories by Sheikha Helawy is no exception

My prior experience of Bedouin people was from living in Oman. My father was posted to Seeb and we as a family lived there, in Muscat. We went on a road trip down to Salalah and stopped by Mahout, a village inhabited mostly by Bedouin, but what was fascinating, was that the women were working as hard as the men, fishing themost productive location on the Gulf of Oman

Naturally I was intrigued by this book of the Palestinian bedouin and the insights it provides. The resounding similarity is the desire for equality, to be heard and this is echoed in each short story. The translation is perfect as ther is a real voice, a deep sense of the true emotions behind each tale as it is committed to paper

This is a brilliant collection and I recommend it highly. Put aside all preconceptions and hear the individual human voices

Thank you to Netgalley and the wonderful Neem Tree Press for bringing us another fantastic ARC. My review is left voluntarily and all opinions are my own

3.5/5! The writing in the book was beautiful, and I enjoyed learning about a different culture and womanhood through Helawy's words. There were some stories I didn't particularly enjoy, but overall it was a good read!

3.5/5 stars

This title (and the short story that accompanies it) is WONDERFUL. Like you cannot beat that.

This is my first book that is translated from Arabic and by a Palestinian author. It is a lovely collection of short stories, some only a page long, some multiple, about the lives and experiences of Bedouin Palestinian women. These stories are short, but powerful and mighty. Some of these stories follow girlhood, jealousy, family, tradition, and many more themes.

Such a fascinating read, and I thought the translation from Arabic was very well done. I have a newfound appreciation for this area of literature, which I had very little knowledge of prior.

Thank you NetGalley & Neem Tree Press for the arc!

a beautiful anthology of stories about womanhood in palestine
the way the author wrote each of these stories was captivating and inspiring, as someone with no prior knowledge of bedouin culture i was intrigued by this book from the start and i felt like i got a glimpse into it.
the book covered all types of topics from family, tradition, marriage, childhood from the perspective of women and it felt like a very special and important book to read during these times
id recommend it because it was an easy and quick read but it does leave a lasting impact

These short stories focus on the lives of Bedouin Palestinian women and girls. Tradition, city life, childhood, growing up, relationships, jealousy, football, the roles of men and women and many other themes. The best for me was ‘Ali’ about a jealous husband. A powerful and interesting read.

An incredible collection of short stories, giving an insight into the lives and culture of Bedouin Palestinian women and girls. Very difficult to put down and utterly compelling.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC.

This is a lovely set of short stories, well told, that gives glimpses into the lives of Bedouin women. The translation is excellent. It feels like the spirit of the original has been kept, but it reads very smoothly. Though the stories are about Bedouin women they are universal stories, rich and poetic. With the addition of the drawings this is a beautiful book. This is a perfect book to gift.

It is astonishing that such short stories (only a few pages each) could hold within them such depth and emotional sincerity. The vignettes do not just portray an individual character and a snapshot of their life, but convey a sense of the time and place and social world within which they live. Each story pushes against the sexist restraints placed upon the protagonists’ lives, undermining the rules and expectations which bind them and hinting at the possibility of a much more expansive existence. The strangeness of dislocation and a quiet but powerful mourning of what is lost (community, memory, the familiar) runs throughout the collection and imbues the older characters with a holiness, as symbols of a time now lost. At the same time there is thrum of power in the stories’ young women that places them above the lives they have been trapped in, and celebrates their minds, imaginations, resilience and courage.

In a Nutshell: An OwnVoices anthology by a Bedouin Palestinian woman writer, focusing on female experiences in that culture. Enjoyed the setting more than the stories, though there are some gems herein.

The translator’s preface at the start provides a nice foundation to our experience of this anthology, first published in Arabic in 2015. It introduces the author’s background and her writing style. Author Sheikha Helawy grew up in a Palestinian Bedouin village named Shail El E'rj, which was forcibly displaced by the Israeli occupation in the 1990s. She uses her early memories and her experiences after losing her home to pen stories about women such as her.

This collection of eighteen stories focusses on the female Bedouin voice, offering us myriad women who are trying to thwart outdated patriarchal and social practices to whatever little extent they can. Not all of their wins are grand, but in such situations, even tiny victories matter.

The author’s writing is quite lyrical, and her OwnVoices experience of the Bedouin thinking and culture is reflected in every single story. Despite the political potential of the setting, the author doesn’t diverge into statements or opinions about the Israel-Palestine conflict, but sticks to her chosen theme of regular women trying to live regular lives.

Despite what you might assume, this isn’t a book about weak women suppressed by a restrictive culture but of resilient women indulging in little rebellions. Most of the tales are dramatic in style, which serves the content well. The protagonists range from young girls to old women, thereby bringing a wonderfully varied perspective to each story. The characters show a tenacity of spirit that allows us to root for them.

That said, my experience of the stories was very mixed. Some of the stories feel a bit unstructured, while others were too short to make an impact. At least half of the stories would have benefited with a little more substance at the end. While we do get a glimpse of the Bedouin culture, it is more in tiny snapshots than a panoramic view.

The blurb mentions “beautiful illustrations throughout”, but these aren’t a part of the stories themselves. Rather, there is a B&W line art illustration on the page containing the story’s title, with the sketch befitting that story.

As always, I rated the stories individually. Most of the stories fell within the 3-3.5 star range for me, with a few exceptions either way. My dissatisfaction mostly stems from the lack of a conclusive endpoint for the tales, and in some cases, from the lack of a sensible structure to the plot.

My favourite stories were:
💮 They Fell Like Stars from the Sky – Deservedly the title story, because it represents the thinking of the culture aptly. The discrimination between sons and daughters comes out strongly in this tale. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟
💮 Pink Dress – About a little girl’s experience with her new pink dress. My favourite story from this collection, probably because I connected the best with it. I could see teenaged me indulging in the same antics before getting into a dress that revealed my legs. 😉 - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫
💮 Ali – About a man’s search for ‘Ali’ during a funeral. Needed to read this twice to get the missing clues, but it was worth it. The ending is one of the best in this anthology. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫
💮 All the love I’ve known – The story begins with this line: “We don’t have girls who fall in love.” The rest goes on to prove why. Brilliant plot. Wanted more at the end. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟
💮 W-h-o-r-e – The title is self-explanatory about the content. A very confusing start to this story, but the ending ensured that it made it to this list. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟
💮 The Door to the Body – About a girl whose parents are considering enrolling her in a boarding school for some mysterious reason. This could have been one of the best in the collection had it been better structured. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟

To sum up, the USP of this anthology is its setting and the cultural background of the author. I have never ever read a book set around Bedouin experiences and written by a Bedouin writer, so these two factors were enough to satisfy me with this collection, though the stories themselves could have worked better for me.

Recommended not as a must-read anthology, but as a book about a culture you rarely get to experience in fiction.

3.25 stars, based on the average of my ratings for each story.


My thanks to Neem Tree Press and NetGalley for the DRC of “They Fell Like Stars From the Sky & Other Stories”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

A truly captivating range of short stories with some rather quirky characters and some fabulous illustrations. All eighteen short stories offer the reader an insight into the lives of Palestinian Bedouin girls and women.

The stories cover a diverse range of topics; some are amusing - from one girl desperate to lose her typical Bedouin braid in order to fit in at school, to another whose grandmother put the late singer Umm Kulthum high up on a pedestal, the childhood innocence of swinging off a tyre tied to a tree and one girl shaving her legs to wear a pink dress. Other stories such as Ali and W-h-o-r-e bring out the sad consequences of living in a patriarchal society where there is no accountability for the perpetrator.

Overall, most of the stories were satisfying reads. There were a couple of stories which were quite off-beat and really didn't hold my interest.

The 18 stories in Sheikha Helawy’s collection, They Fell Like Stars From The Sky and Other Stories (available for the first time in English, translated by Nancy Roberts and published by The Neem Tree Press), are engrossing reads, rare glimpses into the world of Palestinian Bedouins. Helawy’s writing is bold, her observations keen, her varying points of view compelling. Her best stories (in my view) are those which tell of youthful female rebellion against rules imposed by religion, society, men and fearful mothers (the titular They Fell Like Stars From the Sky, Haifa Assassinated my Braid, Pink Dress, I’ll be There, The Door to the Body). A swing, short hair, a disused razor, a song from the West and a rumour about a disappeared boarding school orphan. Who would have thought these would be weapons of defiance? Phrases that are achingly beautiful to the point of poetry pepper Helawy’s writing. Overall, a strong collection that will resonate, particularly with young women who have all experienced lives hemmed in, to one degree or another, by invisible walls.

A collection of short stories by a Bedouin/Palestinian author, focusing on the experience of women and young girls living in that environment. The stories cover a plethora of topics, and depict both young girls as well as older women, as they navigate a mostly patriarchal and traditionalist society, where women often have a secondary role, and where they happiness is never a priority.

Despite the less the joyous context and the often grim content of her stories, the author is able to resist gloom. Most of the stories have a glimmer of hope, and describe strong protagonists that persevere, persist, and thrive despite their environment. The stories weave a tapestry of resilience and hope, and individual stamina, showing that sometimes, and not without difficulty, one can overcome and find happiness within. The stories celebrate individuality and the search for defining oneself independently (as much as possible) from the environment, while looking for those elements in that environment that can help, support, and encourage. The spirit of the author's characters is strong and can rarely (if ever) be broken.

On top of the strong individualistic and feminist overtone I also liked reading stories coming out of Israel/Palestine that don't directly talk about the conflict. Naturally, it's in the background, and many stories do talk of events that are caused by the political context. However, the narratives are human and describe what it means to be human in that society, in that time, in that context. It's refreshing and illuminating.

Aside from the above, and while being neat, the stories are not particularly well written, and few, if any, leave me seeing the world in a new way, or experiencing new emotions. There's nothing wrong with them, but they are mostly "educational" in nature, with a strong moral overtone. Nothing groundbreaking in the grand context of global literature.

Recommend it to anyone interested in the story of women in traditional societies and the tensions between these societies and the surrounding modern world, and the experience of women in Bedouin communities in Israel / Palestine.

My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book early, in return for an honest review.

A great pick for Women in Translation month as this book allows us to hear the voices of Palestinian Bedouin women, which are seldom acknowledged or even known of.

These stories are a mix of slice-of-life, coming of age, small rebellions, and insights into customs and culture. They’re very short and quick to read but always manage to be completely captivating and clear in what they say.

They’re beautifully written and the translation is very good, with helpful footnotes to give us some added context to certain phrases or people. The translator’s preface was also incredibly useful and educational. I would love to see more of this author’s work translated into English.

The title art for each chapter was also beautiful.

I’d recommend this to anyone looking to diversity their reading and explore marginalised voices.

I like to read diverse and get to know other cultures through reading. So "They Fell Like Stars From The Sky & Other Stories" by Sheikha Helawy peaked instantly my interest.

I know almost nothing about beduin palastenansian women other than the fact that I don't believe everything that is told through news media - they often forget women and even if they talk about them then only as victims of this and that.

This insight of the lives of women that try to live their normal lives, reach dreams (as small as they may be) and live through tragedies but also victories was amazing.

I love how Sheikha Helawy is able to write whole micro cosmoses on three to four pages - and never does a judging of the situation. It is really amazing how any assessment of the situation is clearly through the lenses of the protagonists out of their minds and feelings itself.

Elegantly Sheika Helawy does often write a setting for the readers and then zooms in to a young girl or women that is in this setting and what her experiences, feelings and thoughts are about her life. Its done beautifully and lets me want to read more from Helawy.

One of my favorite stories is "Soulless cities" because it has on its short space so much impact and is in my opinion able to summarize the feelings of all the stories in this collection.

Thank you for giving me the chance of reading these stories!