Sand-Catcher - by Omar Khalifah (Paperback)

About the Book

"Four Palestinian journalists at a Jordanian newspaper are tasked with writing a profile on one of the last living witnesses of the Nakba, the violent expulsion of native Palestinians by the nascent state of Israel in 1948. Confident that the old man will be more than willing to go on record about his experiences, the reporters are nonplussed when they are repeatedly, and obscenely, rebuffed by the man and his grandchildren. This living witness to history seems to have no desire to be interviewed, no desire for his memories to be preserved, no desire to talk. As the team's editor-in-chief puts more and more pressure on the young journalists, a battle of wills escalates to ruinous consequences that will leave no one unscathed"--

Book Synopsis

A sardonic, thrilling fable about collective memory and the many ways it can be saved or subverted.

Four young, Palestinian journalists at a Jordanian newspaper are tasked, on account of their heritage, with profiling one of the last living witnesses of the Nakba, the violent expulsion of native Palestinians by the nascent state of Israel in 1948. Confident that the old man will be all too happy to go on record, the reporters are nonplussed when they are repeatedly, and obscenely, rebuffed. This living witness to history, this secular saint, has no desire to be interviewed, no desire for his memories to be preserved, no desire to serve as an inspiration for the youth of tomorrow. What he wants is to be left alone.

As threats from the team's editor-in-chief put more and more pressure on the journalists, they must decide just how far they're willing to go to get the old man on the record. After all, what possible weight can one stubborn demand for privacy have when balanced against the imperative to bear witness?

Omar Khalifah's debut novel Sand-Catcher is at once a polyphonic satire and a tightly plotted tale of suspense. Walking the line between gallows humor, rage, and depthless heartbreak, it is a unique reflection of contemporary Palestinian identity in all its facets.

Review Quotes

Praise for Sand-Catcher

Winner, 2025 National Translation Award
A Chicago Review of Books Must-Read Book of December 2024
A Literary Hub Most Anticipated Book of 2024
A Millions Most Anticipated Book of Fall 2024

"When atrocities become commonplace, when dominant narratives circulate unchecked and unopposed, too often the burden of collective memory comes to rest on individual witnesses--people who, Sand-Catcher suggests, might have something to lose in the telling." --Bekah Waalkes, The Atlantic

"Sand-Catcher exemplifies why translated literature is important. An exuberant and thought-provoking tale." --Cory Oldweiler, The Boston Globe

"A darkly funny satire and a suspenseful tale about balancing the need for privacy and bearing witness to the traumas of the past and present." --Michael Welch, Chicago Review of Books

"Khalifah depicts how the Palestinian diaspora has suffered not only the brutality of Israeli dispossession but also the exploitation of Palestinian bodies and memories in the 80 years since. [He] rejects the self-mortification that has been demanded of Palestinians, with no justice given in exchange." --Mathilde Montpetit, The Berliner

"[Sand-Catcher] starts with seduction and ends in violence, a climax like a wind-up toy built to fly to pieces, a breakup that tears through both family and friends. It's the same widening crack as ever⎯all that's been lost⎯lurking under all the clever structure and gab." --John Domini, The Brooklyn Rail

"A timely new translation and hopefully one we'll be reading at the same time as we can celebrate a safe and free Palestine." --Literary Hub

"For anyone looking for insight--tinged with grim humor--into the years leading up to the present political crisis in the Middle East and the decades-long goal of Palestinian autonomy." --The Millions

"The novel doesn't tell us where to put the line between a commodified archetype and the real. Instead, it leaves us to take this tension forward into our lives." --Marcia Lynx Qualey, The New Arab

About the Author

Omar Khalifah is a novelist and short story writer in Arabic. His book, Nasser in the Egyptian Imaginary, was published in English by Edinburgh University Press in 2017. His collection Ka'annani Ana (As If I Were Myself) was published in Amman, Jordan in 2010, and his novel Qabid al-Raml (Sand-Catcher) was published in 2020. His articles have appeared in Middle East Critique and Journal of World Literature. A Fulbright scholar, Khalifah is assistant professor of Arabic Literature and Culture at Georgetown School of Foreign Service in Qatar.

Barbara Romaine is an academic and literary translator. She has published translations of five novels, most recently Waiting for the Past (Syracuse University Press, 2022), by the Iraqi novelist Hadiya Hussein. She has held two NEA fellowships in translation, one of which was for her work on Radwa Ashour's Spectres (Interlink Books, 2011). Spectres went on to place second in the 2011 Saif Ghobash-Banipal international translation competition. Romaine's translations of essays, short stories, and classical poetry have appeared in a variety of literary periodicals.