The Slightest Green

A new novel by the celebrated Palestinian American author of The Beauty of Your Face

American-born nurse Intisar has strived to create a life for herself in Chicago. She was raised by her mother after her father returned to Palestine when she was 9, completely disappearing from her life. Now, 20 years later, she receives an urgent request from him. He is dying and asks her to come home.

Her father, Hafez, had left behind his wife and daughter, along with his hopes of becoming an architect, to join the Palestinian resistance. A mission gone wrong landed him in Gahana Prison with a life-sentence. Declared an enemy of the state of Israel, Hafez was released only after a terminal cancer diagnosis. Intisar feels totally removed from him and from any roots she might have in the village of Bayt al-Hawa. She only visited the village once as a child. Even her own grandmother, her father’s mother Sundus, is a stranger to her.

Despite all the feelings of estrangement, Intisar goes. But when she arrives, it is too late. Her father has died. And with his passing, a local real estate broker has come forward, claiming that the family’s home and orchard were sold to him by Sundus’ late husband. He even has a forged deed to prove it. Intisar’s grandmother is faced with losing her home once again. She pleads with Intisar to stay. Together they could take on the legal battle to establish Intisar as the rightful heir.

As the missing relationship between granddaughter and grandmother is recovered, so is the elder’s life story of survival, loss, and stewardship of the bountiful orchard in Bayt al-Hawa. Sundus passes on to her the family’s history and connection to their heritage and land. But with them comes the choice to nourish and sustain this legacy—the same choice faced by Intisar’s father.

Imbued with the beauty and pain of an all-too-recent, never-ending past, The Slightest Green is powerfully etched in Sahar Mustafah’s honest and lyrical prose.