This is the second instalment in a trilogy that explores the Palestinian experience both during and after the 1948 Nakba through the life of Adam Dannoun and his quest for identity and a place to feel at home in the world. The first volume covered Adam’s time in New York, whereas this one goes right back to his birth and follows him as he grows up. His life is marked by being born in the Lydda ghetto and his subsequent displacement. Adam is both narrator and protagonist, and one problem with the book is that I found it hard to relate to him. He’s extremely solipsistic and himself doesn’t seem to relate in any meaningful way to those around him, especially to the women he has relationships with. In fact the women characters are particularly superficially portrayed. War, displacement, oppression and the breakdown of his family life means of course that the odds are stacked against him, and he deserves the reader’s sympathy but I still found it hard to empathise with him. This lack of engagement is not helped by the episodic nature of the narrative. There’s little plot, but rather unconnected episodes from his life that don’t seem to flow from one to another. The book is stylistically and narratively complex and little help is given to those not familiar with the history and events that are described. A few footnotes would have been helpful. All in all, I struggled with the novel, didn’t really enjoy it and didn’t feel that it repaid the effort I had to put into it.