Minor Detail: Adania Shibli in conversation with Preti Taneja

Writing a Scarred Language

Minor Detail begins during the summer of 1949, one year after the war that Palestinians mourn as the Nakba - the catastrophe that led to the displacement and expulsion of more than 700,000 people – which saw the creation of the state of Israel. Israeli soldiers capture and rape a young Palestinian girl, and kill and bury her in the sand. Many years later, a woman in Ramallah becomes obsessed with this ‘minor detail’ of history. A haunting meditation on war, violence and memory, Minor Detail cuts to the heart of the Palestinian experience of dispossession, life under occupation, and the persistent difficulty of piecing together a narrative in the face of ongoing erasure and disempowerment.

Adania Shibli was born in Palestine. She was awarded the Young Writer’s Award by the A. M. Qattan Foundation in 2002 and 2004, and her most recent novel Minor Detail (tr. Elisabeth Jaquette) was shortlisted for America’s National Book Award for Translated Literature, and longlisted for the International Booker Prize. In October 2023 Minor Detail was to receive Germany’s LiBeraturpreis; then the award was withheld and Shibli’s event at Frankfurt Book Fair summarily cancelled. Over 1,300 authors worldwide signed an open letter in support of the writer and her book, and called for the ongoing importance of hearing Palestinian literary voices at Frankfurt Book Fair and beyond.

In collaboration with English PEN, NCLA is proud to welcome Adania Shibli to Newcastle to discuss her work.

Preti Taneja is Director of NCLA and Professor of World Literature and Creative Writing at Newcastle University.

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