Ibtisam Azem

What if all the Palestinians in Israel simply disappeared one day? The Book of Disappearance is set in contemporary Tel Aviv. Alaa is a young Palestinian man who is haunted by his grandmother’s memories of being displaced from Jaffa and becoming a refugee in her homeland. His Jewish neighbour and friend, Ariel, is a journalist who believes in Israel’s national...

What if all the Palestinians in Israel simply disappeared one day? What would happen next? How would Israelis react? These unsettling questions are posed in Azem's powerfully imaginative novel. Set in contemporary Tel Aviv, forty-eight hours after Israelis discover all their Palestinian neighbours have vanished, the story unfolds through alternating narrators. Alaa, a young Palestinian man, converses with his dead...