Daughters of Palestine: A Memoir in Five Generations

Description: "A memoir recounting the stories and experiences of five generations of women from a Christian Palestinian family"--

Brief description: Leyla K. King is a Palestinian American Episcopal priest and writer. She is a founding member of Palestinian Anglicans and Clergy Allies (Palestiniananglicans.org) and The Small Churches Big Impact Collective (smallchurchesbigimpact.org). Currently, she serves as the Canon for Mission in Small Congregations for the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas. King is the author of Daughters of Palestine: A Memoir in Five Generations.

Review Quotes:

"Daughters of Palestine is a must-read for Christians today as war and starvation in the Middle East continue to affect the lives of Palestinians, including Palestinian Christians, our brothers and sisters in Christ."
--The Banner

"Absorbing debut memoir . . . Through overlapping vignettes, [King] creates a colorful mosaic of her family's experiences, highlighting their courage, faithfulness, humor, and deep love for one another. Daughters of Palestine illuminates the Palestinian Christian experience and celebrates one family's resilience."
--Shelf Awareness

"King pulls no punches in detailing how seemingly safe harbors for refugees can suddenly become threatening, and vividly captures how her family celebrated life's blessings and endured tumult with the aid of their faith. The result is a powerful narrative of loss, survival, and belief."
--Publishers Weekly

"Absolutely riveting. This fast-paced, immersive book reads like a novel and tells the truth of one family's legacy of faith and love through displacements and wars, across decades and continents. A must-read for anyone who loves a great story and is interested in learning about the complexities of a region often misrepresented in the West."
--Jessica Goudeau, author of We Were Illegal: Uncovering a Texas Family's Mythmaking and Migration and After the Last Border: Two Families and the Story of Refuge in America

"Vividly empathetic, Leyla K. King brings her family's tale of survival to life, sharing a direct, clear-eyed account of her grandmother's displacement from Palestine. At this memoir's urgent heart is a celebration of strength and resilience, resonant with a love of language. It follows King's foremothers across decades and nations as they reckon with the exigencies of dispossession and the circumstances of their identity as Palestinian Christians. All who owe their existence to a journey will find something to love in these intricately braided sagas."
--Sarah Cypher, author of The Skin and Its Girl

"Leyla King's Daughters of Palestine is a poignant and fascinating multi-generational tale of a family's flight from Palestine to the United States. Taking the reader from the village of Shafa 'Amr in 1920s British Palestine to Houston, Texas in the present day, with stops in Haifa, Beirut, Damascus and other Middle Eastern cities, the book weaves together family stories of love, hope, and faith. Set against the backdrop of exile and displacement, these tales demonstrate the power of family and faith to help people overcome tragedy. This book is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the experience of Palestinian Christians who are often overlooked in discussions of the Arab-Israeli conflict."
--Nicholas E. Roberts, author of Islam Under the Palestine Mandate

"Daughters of Palestine is a glorious celebration of Palestinian motherhood, sisterhood, and daughterhood. Leyla King's writing sings as she as she narrates the multi-generational epic of her Palestinian Christian family. Chronicling her family's loves and losses from Haifa to Beirut to Damascus to Houston, her beautiful book is testimony to the power of connection, of faith, of home, and above all, of story. An essential book for our times."
--Stephanie Saldaña, author of What We Remember Will Be Saved: A Story of Refugees and the Things They Carry