In Search of Fatima
Palestine

In Search of Fatima

by Ghada Karmi

Identity & Belonging Non-Fiction Memoir 2002

Summary

What does it mean to lose your homeland—and spend the rest of your life searching for a place to belong? In this moving memoir, Ghada Karmi recounts her childhood in Jerusalem, her family’s forced displacement during the 1948 Nakba, and their eventual resettlement in England. Growing up between two worlds, she struggles with exile, cultural alienation, and the feeling of being a stranger in a country that is supposed to be home. As she reflects on her childhood and later returns to Palestine, Karmi explores the personal consequences of displacement alongside the political history that shaped her life. Both an intimate family story and a powerful account of Palestinian experience, this memoir examines how the loss of a homeland can shape identity across generations.

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Palestine
Asia
About the author
Ghada Karmi
Ghada Karmi

Ghada Karmi is a Palestinian-British physician, academic, writer, and political commentator born in Jerusalem in 1939. Her family was forced to leave Palestine during the Nakba in 1948, eventually settling in England, where she grew up and pursued her education. She studied medicine at the University of Bristol and later earned a doctorate in the history of Arabic medicine from the University of London. After practising as a doctor, specialising in the health of migrants and refugees, she became an influential scholar of Middle Eastern politics and Palestinian history. Her work explores displacement, exile, identity, and the enduring consequences of the loss of homeland. Her acclaimed memoir In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story (2002) recounts her childhood in Jerusalem and her experience of growing up in Britain. Other notable works include Return: A Palestinian Memoir (2015) and One State: The Only Democratic Future for Palestine-Israel (2023).

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Published
2002
Author
Ghada Karmi