Every Exit Brings You Home
Palestine

Every Exit Brings You Home

by Naeem Murr

Identity & Belonging Fiction 2026

Summary

Jamal “Jack” Shaban has built a new life in Chicago, far from the violence that forced him to flee Gaza decades earlier. Now a flight attendant and the unofficial peacemaker of his condominium building, he spends his days resolving neighbours’ disputes while concealing the complicated truths of his own life. His traditional Muslim wife, Dimra, longs for a child, while Jack struggles with the secrets, desires, and regrets that threaten their marriage. When a troubled single mother moves into the building, new tensions awaken memories of a forbidden love affair in Gaza that changed the course of his life. As financial troubles engulf the community and the past resurfaces, Jack must confront the contradictions that define him: devoted husband and restless lover, generous neighbour and troubled survivor. Blending dark humour with heartbreaking reflections on war and displacement, Every Exit Brings You Home explores the meaning of home, the weight of exile, and the extraordinary ways people choose love despite the pain they carry.

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Country
Palestine
Asia
About the author
Naeem Murr
Naeem Murr

Naeem Murr is a British-born novelist and short-story writer of Palestinian and Irish descent. Born in London in 1965, he moved to the United States in his twenties and has since developed a distinctive literary voice known for its psychological depth, dark humour, and exploration of complicated human relationships. He is a former Stegner Fellow at Stanford University and has received numerous honours, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Lannan Residency Fellowship, a PEN Beyond Margins Award, and a Pushcart Prize. His debut novel, The Boy (1998), was named a New York Times Notable Book, while The Perfect Man (2007) received the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book in the Europe and South Asia region and was longlisted for the Booker Prize. After a lengthy publishing hiatus, Murr returned with Every Exit Brings You Home (2026), a novel that draws on his Palestinian heritage to explore exile, identity, love, and the enduring consequences of war. He lives in Chicago and teaches at Northwestern University.

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Details
Published
2026
Author
Naeem Murr