This is a powerful and deeply introspective exploration of the complexities of the Palestinian experience. Using personal anecdotes and historical analysis, this text challenges the reader to confront their own biases and preconceptions.

RECOGNIZING THE STRANGER: ON PALESTINE AND NARRATIVE is Isabella Hammad’s Edward W. Said Memorial Lecture delivered at Columbia University just 9 days before 7 October 2023. It also includes an afterword written in early January 2024 given what’s happened in the intervening period, and what continues to happen now.

We can never underestimate the ability of literature and narrative to shape our understanding of history, politics and the gross injustice that often accompanies it.

Hammad doesn’t have the answers, and that’s not the point of this extremely compelling and considered piece. It’s her message which asks the questions that we in turn are asked to mull over and is what makes this such an important and timely read for this moment.

I hope pick everyone picks this up.

Posting closer to pub date.

An extremely important book!!
Isabella Hammad prepared and delivered this thought-provoking lecture a few days before October 7th (+ an afterword written at the beginning of 2024) and I truly believe this is a must-read.
I particularly enjoyed the discussion on narrative/literature/novels and how they shape our understanding of political events.

"Where the mood of the comic narrative is one of reunion and return - where resolution is total, the circle is closed - the novels I'm interested in may conclude, but they don't usually answer the questions they have posed. In tragedy, as in the novel, as in life, humanity's accounts with the forces of fate or circumstance or chance do not balance: what we might call the gods are willful, incomprehensible, and unfair".

This is such an important read for this moment in history, the afterward discussing the current events that took place after the writing of the initial speech was especially prescient. It’s heartbreaking to know that section was written in January and since then things have just continued on the same trajectory for months. I loved the weaving in of literary topics with this real world situation, it made for an immersive read and I’m sure the speech was even more effective to hear in person.

A really interesting and unique perspective on the challenges of awareness and recognition of the Palestinian struggle within the context of narrative and storytelling

I will read anything Hammad writes or says. This speech is a compelling reflection of war and freedom in Palestine, one that we all should listen to. She is one of the best writers of this moment and I hope many people will access this text and take the time to sit with it.

Such an important book, I feel privileged to have read this prior to release.

Hammad is so thoughtful and considered in her words, but really packs a punch. Excited for the hard copy to come out to have it on my shelves. Will be sharing this as important read to my audience.

A short yet powerful read and it is incredibly relevant right now, as it references the narrative of the Palestinian people and was written days prior to 7th October . The writings make us think about the issues and encourages actions. Will be thinking about it.

This book is short but meaningful. It begins with Isabella Hammad's speech for the Edward W. Said Memorial lecture in 2023. The speech was given 9 days before October 7th. The afterward covers the updates comping from Gaza and the continued violence against the Palestinian people. Though it is only 80 pages is was very impactful and moving. I loved the general concept of recognition. How we can see the turning points in the past but when we're living it there is nothing but a sense of anxiety. Hammad has a beautiful and powerful way of writing and speaking and experiencing this brief writing has inspired me to pick up her novels and something by Edward W. Said. I would truly recommend giving her lecture a listen to get a sense of her voice and presence. This is a must read to anyone looking for more perspective on a genocide.

Isabella Hammad’s latest work is a brief but impactful read, packing a lot of emotional and intellectual punch into just 90 pages. This book dives deep into the concept of 'recognition'—a moment of realization that changes everything.

The book has two parts: a lecture Hammad gave in September 2023 at Columbia University and an afterword written in January 2024. The timing of the lecture, just days before the events of October 7th, adds a haunting relevance to her words. Hammad explores the idea of recognition not just in literature but in real life, particularly in the context of the ongoing genocide in Palestine.

One powerful moment in the lecture is when Hammad quotes Omar Barghouti: “How many Palestinians need to die for one soldier to have their epiphany?” This underscores the brutal reality that awareness must lead to action. In the afterword, Hammad reflects on the devastating impact of the recent genocide in Gaza and the West Bank, framing these tragedies as part of a long history of suffering.

Hammad’s writing is eloquent and urgent, drawing readers in and making them think deeply about the issues she raises. The afterword is especially moving, addressing the aftermath of October 2023 with honesty and a call to action. Hammad doesn’t just describe the harsh realities of life in Palestine; she also calls for hope and justice.

For those new to Hammad’s work, this book is a great introduction. It’s not just about literary theory but also a strong political statement, urging readers to go beyond passive recognition and take meaningful action.

Overall, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in literature, politics, or the Genocide in Palestine. It’s short but powerful, encouraging us to confront difficult truths and make a difference. Highly recommended.

As I write this, a ceasefire has still not been called. I wonder what reality you now live in. From the point in time at which you read this, what do you say of the moment I am in? How large is the gulf between us? […] Are we seeing the beginnings of a decolonial future, or of another more complete Nakba?

A thought-provoking lecture, given at Columbia University as the Edward E. Said Memorial lecture, only days before the events of October 7, followed by an afterword from January 2024.

In light of the still on-going genocide, I’m so happy that lectures such as these get more audience by putting it in writing, too. With only 90 pages, it’s easily read in one sitting, but also to refer back to it at a later point.

Hammad’s way with words made me curious to read more of her work, so I’ve added Enter Ghost to my basket.

Thank you NetGalley for the advance copy!

Some quotes I highlighted:

But if we cannot always know the significance of the moment in the moment, it is also true that our moment, the one in which we now live, feels like one of chronic “crisis”: political, economic, and climate crises besiege us, along with other existential crises posed by the exponential development of artificial intelligence, and the recurring nightmare of nuclear war.

To recognize something is, then, to perceive clearly what on some level you have known all along, but that perhaps you did not want to know.

To realize you have been wrong about something is, I believe, to experience the otherness of the world coming at you. It is to be thrown off-center.

To induce a person’s change of heart is different from challenging the tremendous force of collective denial. And denial is arguably the opposite of recognition. But even denial is based on a kind of knowing. A willful turning from devastating knowledge, perhaps, out of fear.

But the West is stuck in a loop, always looking at the past (displaced into language), instead of at the present (communicated in images), from which they want to look away. The Eurocentrism of the definition may now be on trial at the Hague, but in dominant Western discourse, genocide can only be committed against the Jews because it once was, and therefore they are the only group that must be protected.

WOW, what a short but impactful book. this is exactly the type of writing I love and was very reminiscent of Didion & Ferrante to me. The content itself was deeply moving, and I have truly never read anything like it before. This was also all the more moving because I haven't read a book SO relevant since the events that unfolded after Oct 7th. The lecture & what was written in the afterward made me very emotional, especially as things have progressed in Gaza even after this was written. This was such an amazing read and I can't recommend it enough - please pick this up in September.

I've never read any of Hammad's work before, but will definitely be reading everything else & keeping up with future releases. I hope she comes out with more nonfiction!!

The author here tries to discuss the definition of the unveiling of the stranger in novels throughout history with particular reference to the Palestinian narrative. The stakeholders of Palestinian history, be it the writers, the journalists, or the supporters of Israel and Palestine have a vague idea of who the stranger is, they try to grapple in the dark. However,

Overall, it was a good book though some refinements would be appreciable.

This book is composed first of Isabella Hammad’s September 2023 lecture and then an afterword reflecting on the developments since October 7th. And so, her chosen topic – that of anagnorisis – feels intensely prescient. Hammad’s original lecture extends the term, the moment of discovery in which one realises previous ignorance, beyond the literary. Our lives may exceed the narrative frame and yet, “we hope for resolution, or at least we hope that retrospectively what felt like a crisis will turn out to have been a turning point.” From ‘ana’ (again) and ‘gnorizein’ (to make known, to gain knowledge of), anagnorisis is contained in an already knowing. Re-cognition more a confrontation by that which we do not want to know than a revelation. Was Oedipus really not able to connect the dots without a witness testimony? Does Perry the Platypus really need his brown fedora? Did we need the recent escalation of violence in the Middle East to come to these moments of private reckoning?

While in Palestine with a group of international writers, Hammad finds herself once again the audience to such a moment. “I was moved to see them moved. At the same time, I couldn’t help but feel a kind of despairing déjà vu, the scene of recognition having become at this point rather familiar.” Here, realisation is not experienced by Palestinians and yet relies on Palestinian assertions of humanity. They are expected to relate the humanising details that might “allow for the conversion of the repentant Westerner, who might then descend onto the stage if not as a hero then perhaps as some kind of deus ex machina.” Instead, Hammad echoes a question Yasmin El-Rifae presents in her history of militant feminists in the final days of the 2011 Egyptian revolution: can we break into male consciousness without direct address? Simply “as a by-product of us speaking to one another?”

This lecture is so rich it seems hard to believe it was not intended for the page. Hammad holds up familiar ideas for closer inspection and, in so doing, captures not just the carefully distilled thought, but our gaze upon it. Following Edward Said, the site of recognition is reversed; the familiar becomes stranger; “the consoling fictions of fixed identity” are uprooted. Hammad notes that while recognising the limits of one’s knowledge can be exhilarating in fiction, it is often terrifying in life. “In real life, shifts in collective understanding are necessary for major changes to occur, but on the human, individual scale, they are humbling and existentially disturbing.”

For those of us who read both lecture and afterword after October 2023, they feel like a natural extension of one another. At this critical juncture we make the dramatic turn and come eye to eye with our past reasoning. “To remain human at this juncture is to remain in agony. Let us remain there: it is the more honest place from which to speak.”