We Could Have Been Friends, My Father..., Raja Shehadeh
We Could Have Been Friends, My Father..., Raja Shehadeh
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We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I
A Palestinian Memoir

Author: Raja Shehadeh

Narrator: Peter Ganim

Unabridged: 5 hr 9 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/28/2023

Synopsis

2023 National Book Award Finalist for NonfictionA subtle psychological portrait of the author’s relationship with his father during the twentieth-century battle for Palestinian human rightsAziz Shehadeh was many things: lawyer, activist, and political detainee. He was also the father of bestselling author and activist Raja. In this searingly personal memoir, Raja Shehadeh unpicks the snags and complexities of their relationship.A vocal and fearless opponent, Aziz resists under the British mandatory period, then under Jordan, and, finally, under Israel. As a young man, Raja fails to recognize his father’s courage, and in turn, his father does not appreciate Raja’s own efforts in campaigning for Palestinian human rights. When Aziz is murdered in 1985, it changes Raja irrevocably.This is not only the story of the battle against the various oppressors of the Palestinians but also a moving portrait of a particular father and son relationship.

About Raja Shehadeh

Raja Shehadeh is Palestine’s leading writer. He is also a lawyer and the founder of the pioneering Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq. Shehadeh is the author of several acclaimed books including Strangers in the House, Occupation Diaries, and Palestinian Walks, which won the prestigious Orwell Prize. In 2022 he was named an International Writer of the Royal Society of Literature.

About Peter Ganim

Peter Ganim, an Earphones Award–winning narrator, is an American actor who has appeared on stage, on television, and in film. He has performed voice-over work since 1994.

Reviews

Goodreads review by TheBookWarren

4.75 ⭐️— It’s amazing how just the mere feel, smell & overall character of a physical book — When one knows the author at least somewhat — can prepare one so completely for the quality of the text to come. This had an almost epistolary feel too it, in its structure & format, but being fiction it is......more

Goodreads review by Tamadur

Story number 8 in the Storied life of A.J. Fikry :)......more

Goodreads review by Mehrdad

نویسنده نگاه ریزبینانه ای به زندگی داره داستان کوتاه خوبی بود شاید من هم روزی بتونم برای فرزندهای آینده م همچین حرف هایی بزنم البته از جنس خودم "سی چهل سال دیگه متوجه می شی که بیشتر مواقع خسته ای معنی ش این نیست که ناخوشی این نکته ی مهمیه که دارم بهت می گم گوش کن برای اینکه عمر طولانی داشته باشی سالیان سال با......more

Goodreads review by Mark

How does one review four pages? Does the reader seek to praise what is present or forgive what is absent? Is it about the content? The plot? The development or respect for the lack of development, recognizing that four pages permits none? Do we look for style and substance in the telling of the tale?......more

Quotes

“Profoundly personal as well as historically significant…Illustrates how being dispossessed and being occupied are not merely legal or political conditions.” New York Times Book Review

“Raja’s memoir is a vital history of Aziz’s overlooked achievements; but it is also a son’s love letter to his father.” Harper’s

“A striking story of loss, heartbreak, and political perfidy.” Irish Times (Dublin)

“Absolutely gripping…His masterly, remorseless selection and accumulation of detail builds an unanswerable case against Palestine’s historic and current oppressors.” The Guardian (London)

“This is a Palestinian memoir that will endure.” Church Times

“Shehadeh movingly blends the personal and political in this heartfelt take on his complex relationship with his lawyer father.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Ganim’s measured pace and gentle baritone reflect the audiobook’s structure as it unfolds various moments in the Shehadeh family’s history…Heartfelt listening.” AudioFile

“A clear-eyed, critical, and wise examination of a defining tragedy of the twentieth century—the colonization of Palestine—as refracted through the lens of the fraught relationship between two of Palestine’s leading lawyers, who happen to be father and son.” Saeed Teebi, author of Her First Palestinian

“This personal and gripping memoir…is partly the conversation that Raja Shehadeh wishes he could have had with his murdered father.” Rashid Khalidi, author of The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine

Awards

  • National Book Award
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