Origin and Branch

In Origin and Branch, well-known Palestinian author Sahar Khalifeh continues her narrative journey which attempts to explore the depths of Palestinian society and understand the overlapping discourses which have shaped its identity. Khalifeh uses the stories of individual lives to expose the psychological layers that form the fabric of Palestinian society. The author focuses on the interaction between the Arab self and the ‘other’, whether the other is Jewish, British or simply from a different cultural background. She also looks at the position of women under the occupation, who have found themselves caught between the hammer of tradition and the anvil of modernisation.