TPAN

A book club centred on exploring Palestinian literary voices.

How often: Monthly on the 3rd Friday & Saturday of the month.

Paper, e-book or audiobook are all acceptable forms of reading.

Register by emailing: north.tpan@protonmail.com

When & where:

Two options are available.

• Friday 21st August - 11am-1.00 – Launceston Library
• Saturday 22nd August – 1.00-3.00pm local Café (TBA on registration)

Cost: Free, but books sourced at own cost.

This month's book selection: The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem

Where to get it: 

The Book of Disappearance is available at Petrarch’s Bookshop, Launceston or online.

There is a copy available through Libraries Tasmania.

It is also available as an e-book.

About ‘The Book of Disappearance’ by Ibtisam Azem

Genre: Fantasy Fiction

This book was longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025

What if all the Palestinians in israel simply vanished one day? The Book of Disappearance is set in modern Tel Aviv. Alaa is a young Palestinian man tormented by his grandmother's memories of being displaced from Jaffa and being made a refugee in her own land. His Jewish neighbour and friend, Ariel, a journalist, begins to search for the truth about why Alaa and the other Palestinians have disappeared. Their stories, and the stories of the ordinary people of Jaffa and Tel Aviv, expose the fractures at the heart of the Palestinian question. Ibtisam Azem's spare and evocative novel is an unforgettable glimpse into contemporary Palestine as it grapples with both the memory of loss and the loss of memory.

Written by Palestinian author and journalist Ibtisam Azem, the novel was originally published in Arabic in 2014 by Dar al-Jamal in Beirut and translated into English by her husband, Sinan Antoon, in 2019, published by Syracuse University Press. It has been translated into English, German, and Italian.

About Ibtisam Azem

Ibtisam Azem is a Palestinian novelist, short story writer, and journalist, based in New York. She was born and raised in Taybeh, near Jaffa, the city from which her mother and maternal grandparents were internally displaced in the 1948 Nakba. She lived in Jerusalem before moving to Germany and later to the US. Azem has published two novels in Arabic: The Sleep Thief (2011) and The Book of Disappearance (2014). She has begun writing her first short story collection, City of Strangers.

About Sinan Antoon

Sinan Antoon is an Iraqi poet, novelist, translator, and scholar. He holds degrees from Baghdad and Harvard and has published two collections of poetry and five novels in Arabic. He is an associate professor of Arabic literature at New York University.

Reviews:

'Brilliantly conceived and searingly executed.' Claire Messud

'In this immensely readable novel, Ms. Azem does not resolve for us the calamity of Palestine's occupation by Israel. But stylishly and with jewelled virtuosity she makes us understand that acts of great and humane imagination will be required, and with this potent book points where and how we must all go.' Richard Ford

'Seductively bold...This rich, potent novel reminds us that there are no easy answers.' Guardian

'Speculative and haunting, this is an exceptional exercise in memory-making and psycho-geography.' The International Booker Prize 2025 Judges

We’re looking forward to reading this captivating and thought-provoking novel together.