allisoninouye

I received this book from Giveaways and was not sure what to expect having this be the first book I won. I heard it compared to Kite Runner however, and went into it with high expectations.

I started it last night and finished it this morning, unable to put it down.

It tells the story of Ichmad Hamid, a young Palestine boy growing up a rural village where the Israeli/Palestianian conflict is a daily occurrence. He grows up hating the Israeli soldiers that patrol their village, despite his father telling him things such as “Before you judge a person, try to imagine how you would feel if the same things had happened to you.”

Ichmad's brilliant mind gets him to university, where he sits along Israelis in a classroom taught by Israeli professors. Gradually he begins to be accepted and begins to understand his father's teachings.

This is a powerful book. It teaches about the people that choose to rise above and rather than getting caught up in the conflict and letting their hatred consume them, he pledges to, with the help of his Israeli professor/colleague, lead a life of example.

I highly recommend it. It is a very emotional book and after I finished it, I couldn't stop thinking about it, which is exactly what this book set out to accomplish. It is about raising awareness, and after it I see life differently. How lucky we are that we can live the way we do and how blind we are to the suffering of others in this world.

I will definitely be sharing this book around.