The Slightest Green
Palestine

The Slightest Green

by Sahar Mustafah

Colonialism Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Fiction 2025

Summary

When Intisar Jaber receives news that her estranged father is dying, she leaves her life in Chicago behind and returns to Palestine, a land she barely remembers but has never entirely escaped. Her father, Hafez, abandoned her family decades earlier to join the resistance, only to spend the rest of his life imprisoned. Now, standing in her ancestral village, Intisar must confront the complicated legacy he left behind and the unfamiliar feeling of being a stranger in her own homeland. Meanwhile, her grandmother Sundus fights to protect the family home from those seeking to take it away. As the two women navigate grief, fractured family ties, and the enduring struggle to preserve their inheritance, Intisar faces a difficult choice between the life she has built in America and the history calling her back. The Slightest Green is a moving multigenerational novel about Palestinian identity, displacement, and the powerful connection between people and the land they call home.

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Palestine
Asia
About the author
Sahar Mustafah
Sahar Mustafah

Sahar Mustafah is a Palestinian American novelist and educator whose writing explores heritage, identity, faith, and the experiences of Palestinians living between cultures. The daughter of Palestinian immigrants, she draws on her family’s history and cultural inheritance to examine questions of belonging, displacement, and the lasting effects of political conflict. She earned an MFA in Fiction from Columbia College Chicago, where she was a Follett Graduate Scholar, and lives and teaches outside Chicago. Her debut novel, The Beauty of Your Face (2020), received widespread critical acclaim and was named a notable book of the year by The New York Times Book Review. It was also a finalist for the Palestine Book Awards. Her short fiction has earned significant recognition: Star of Bethlehem received the Lawrence Prize for Best Fiction in 2022, while Tree of Life won the Robert J. DeMott Prize in 2023. Her second novel, The Slightest Green (2025), continues her exploration of Palestinian history, family memory, and the enduring emotional ties between people and their homeland.

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Published
2025
Author
Sahar Mustafah