About the Book
Sixty-five writers contribute to a groundbreaking anthology on Palestine. This collection brings together the work of sixty-five prominent writers to examine America's culpability in the denial of human rights and dignity to Palestinians in Israel/Palestine and beyond. It includes pieces by writers such as Chana Bloch, Marilyn Hacker, Jane Hirshfield, Colum McCann, Claire Messud, Roger Reeves, George Saunders and Alice Walker. In writing that is always clear, and often startlingly beautiful, they cover a range of issues including the erasure and reconstruction of histories, the examination of identity, the rights, privileges, and responsibilities of speaking out as artists, the conditions of occupation, and the potential for activism. The anthology makes a significant contribution toward an understanding of the ways people of conscience in general, and writers in particular, can take on one of the most pressing political questions of our time.
About the Author :
Ru Freeman is a Sri Lankan born author and activist. She is the author of the novels A Disobedient Girl and On Sal Mal Lane, a New York Times Notable Book.
Review :
"It is both the artist's burden and duty to witness what is going on in the world. Sometimes it is easier to remain silent, but as the incredible poet and activist Audre Lorde reminded us, our silence won't protect us. In Extraordinary Rendition: (American) Writers on Palestine, silences are broken, poignant and powerful narratives and testimonials are offered on Palestine that make it impossible for the reader to remain unmoved, unshaken, and unaffected. I hope this book will not only stir emotions and reflections, but will also lead to urgent and necessary change."--Edwidge Danticat
This is a book to be read slowly, deliberately. Though the writing is rich, varied, hard, and lyrical, some of it breathtaking, a treasure house of the sort you want to read out loud just to feel it in the mouth, the prose and poetry found here shape a portrait of the tragedy of two peoples, the Palestinians, whose lives, held so unimportant by the world, daily become more intolerable, and the Israelis, who, through their government's monstrous policies, are responsible.
Extraordinary Rendition reminds us of the power of art and the necessity of literature. In stories, essays and poems that are as varied and diverse, contradictory and complicated as we are, the writers in this deeply humane anthology shed light and bear witness to the one of the complex conflicts of our time. Ru Freeman has made a book unlike anything I've ever read. It's a great contribution to not only to the conversation about Palestine, but to the larger one about peace and justice.--Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild
Extraordinary Rendition stands in the tradition of engaged artists, speaking in defense of liberty and justice- values that ought to be universal but just as often are used as fig leaves by history's victors. Here, renowned writers turn their words to battered, defiant and beautiful Palestine (a place whose oppressors receive the backing of America, a country whose passport many of these writers hold). It's a risky stance, but the best art takes risks. Inside find nuance, challenge, empathy deep into the bone.--Molly Crabapple
In Extraordinary Rendition, an eclectic range of American writers break through the stereotypes and distortions of our media and provide a far more nuanced, penetrating and three-dimensional portrait of Palestinians, their history and the political realities they face daily. The range of genres and approaches make this a necessary and timely anthology, and it should be read by as large and wide-ranging an audience as possible.--David Mura
The question of Palestine can sometimes feel like a long night of despair. But not with this new collection in sight! Here are witnesses, shining like stars.--Amitava Kumar
These varied writings- passionate, anguished, wry, intelligent- combine to produce a uniquely complex and powerful testimony. This is an extraordinary political-literary intervention.--Joseph O'Neill, author of Netherland
This is a book that Americans who believe they're interested in a 'just peace' between Palestinians and Israelis should read. It's a wide and diverse and eloquent book of witness. And it's a revelation, and it's shocking. And it's tragic.--Richard Ford
