Exile and the Dream of a Homeland in Susan Abulhawa’sMornings in Jenin

Abstract

This article is a critical reading of Mornings in Jenin by the Palestinian refugee author Susan Abulhawa. This historical novel, which fuses fiction, history, and journalistic details, depicts the experience of exile, the unbearable feeling of rootlessness, and the trauma inflicted by Israel who commits heinous crimes against the Palestinians and their land. By telling the story of four generations of a Palestinian family, Mornings in Jenin, which is a real epic narrative, evinces the Palestinians’ harsh experience of displacement and eviction from their homeland and their dream of returning. The novel is a very good portrayal of the grave psychological and physical effects of Israel’s conquest. As novels about the Palestinian cause are very few, Particularly in English, this novel is written as a reaction to the Jewish narrative that has long dominated literature. The novel is written in English in order to reach the entire world and to help it learn about the Palestinian cause.