Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad (Paperback)

Fiction - Literary - Political 

Published: 4/9/2024

Winner of the Aspen Words Literary Prize 
Winner of the Royal Society of Literature's Encore Award 

Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 

A New York Times and Washington Post Notable Book of the Year

“Assured and formidable.” — Wall Street Journal

After years away from her family’s homeland, and reeling from a disastrous love affair, actress Sonia Nasir returns to Haifa to visit her older sister Haneen. This is her first trip back since the second intifada and the deaths of their grandparents: while Haneen made a life here commuting to Tel Aviv to teach at the university, Sonia remained in London to focus on her acting career and now dissolute marriage. On her return, she finds her relationship to Palestine is fragile, both bone-deep and new.

At Haneen’s, Sonia meets the charismatic and candid Mariam, a local director, and finds herself roped into a production of Hamlet in the West Bank. Sonia is soon rehearsing Gertude’s lines in Classical Arabic and spending more time in Ramallah than Haifa, along with a dedicated group of men from all over historic Palestine who, in spite of competing egos and priorities, each want to bring Shakespeare to that side of the wall. As opening night draws closer it becomes clear just how many violent obstacles stand before a troupe of Palestinian actors. Amidst it all, the life Sonia once knew starts to give way to the daunting, exhilarating possibility of finding a new self in her ancestral home.

A stunning rendering of present-day Palestine, Enter Ghost is a story of diaspora, displacement, and the connection to be found in family and shared resistance. Timely, thoughtful, and passionate, Isabella Hammad’s highly anticipated second novel is an exquisite feat, an unforgettable story of artistry under occupation.

AUTHOR BIO: 

Isabella Hammad was born in London. Her writing has appeared in the Paris Review, the New York Times, Conjunctions, and elsewhere. She was awarded the 2018 Plimpton Prize for Fiction and a 2019 O. Henry Prize. Her first novel The Parisian (2019) won a Palestine Book Award, the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a Betty Trask Award from the Society of Authors in the UK. She was a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honoree, and has received literary fellowships from MacDowell, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, and the Columbia University Institute for Ideas and Imagination.

"Terrific . . . Enter Ghost though contemporary, is thoroughly infused with Palestine's past -- and thoroughly haunted by Sonia's. Hammad, who is both a delicate writer and an exact one, intertwines the two, taking care to give Sonia as many personal ghosts as she does historical ones....Indeed, the novel seems to argue, real growth and connection, both political and personal, cannot begin until everyone's ghosts have emerged from hiding. Art is, if nothing else, a powerful tool for coaxing them out." -- New York Times Book Review

"[Hammad] is at once able to trace broad social and historical terrains without losing her grasp of particulars, giving a surgical finesse to her writing about the human personality. Her style is often labeled 'exquisite.' These skills put her in the company of other postcolonial literary novelists such as Ahdaf Soueif and Abraham Verghese." -- Washington Post

"Astonishing." -- Vulture, #2 Best Book of the Year

"Hammad is not only a talented novelist; she is also a rigorous researcher, and she paints an authentic picture of Palestinian life, whether it takes place inside Israel or in the West Bank . . . In Enter Ghost, Hammad navigates between the personal and the political in what has come to be her signally seamless manner. She moves across these borders often, almost as if they did not exist." -- Raja Shehadeh, The Nation

"Assured and formidable." -- Wall Street Journal

"Exploring themes of diaspora, displacement and the search for identity, Hammad constructs a world rich in texture and emotion. A poignant narrative of resilience and the quest for belonging, Enter Ghost is a dazzling story of self-discovery against the backdrop of displacement." -- Aspen Words Literary Prize jury

"Hammad's novel depicts a strikingly rich and complicated spectrum of Palestinian identity and experience . . . I would say that there is one other kind of recognition taking place in Hammad's novel, which is neither the recognition of a buried truth nor the recognition of one's limited knowledge. It's recognition as addition, as seeing something more: when a familiar text takes on a new life, becomes electric with new meanings. This is what happens, more than once, with the text of Hamlet--the most familiar work in the Western canon, perhaps, into which Hammad so brilliantly breathes new life by staging it as a Palestinian play." -- Ursula Lindsay, New York Review of Books

"An Arabic language production of 'Hamlet' in the West Bank is the stage for this clear-eyed and vivid book, in which estranged sisters, hot-headed men, a zealous director, and a cast of actors work together in spite of their internal and external challenges to make art despite political strife." -- Boston Globe, A Best Book of the Year

"The complexities, dangers, and haunting realities of contemporary Palestinian existence seep through the tightly-woven plot and beautifully moving prose of Enter Ghost." -- Electric Literature, A Best Novel of the Year

"An exquisite piece of storytelling that weaves history and politics and family with a profound meditation on the purpose of art. It's nuanced, multilayered and gorgeously written and, as with all great novels, rewards multiple readings." --Monica Ali, The Guardian

"Engrossing . . . A highly topical story about the complex connections to be found in art, politics and family life." -- Sunday Times, Book of the Year Pick

"There could hardly be a more urgent time to understand the inner lives of Palestinians, which are depicted with poignance and grace in Isabella Hammad's novel Enter Ghost." -- Nathan Thrall, The Observer Book of the Year Pick

"Captivating . . . A deeply moving narrative that illuminates the lived realities of Palestinians in the West Bank, skillfully interweaving themes of resilience, the struggle for self-discovery, and the complex performance of identity in everyday life." -- Harper's Bazaar

"Hammad's prose is just as exquisite and wise as her main character." -- Bustle