The Book of Disappearance
Palestine

The Book of Disappearance

by Ibtisam Azem

Identity & Belonging Literary Fiction 2014

Summary

The Book of Disappearance imagines a startling alternative reality: one morning, all Palestinians living within Israel suddenly vanish without explanation. The disappearance transforms the country, leaving behind empty homes, abandoned workplaces, and a society forced to confront the absence of a population whose presence has shaped its history and everyday life. At the centre of the novel is Alaa, a Palestinian journalist living in Tel Aviv, whose Israeli friend Ariel discovers Alaa’s abandoned diary and begins reading it. Through their intertwined perspectives, the novel explores memory, displacement, belonging, and the political tensions surrounding Palestinian identity. As Ariel searches for meaning in the disappearance, Alaa’s diary reveals the intimate experiences and historical wounds that official narratives often overlook. Blending speculative fiction with social and political commentary, Ibtisam Azem challenges readers to imagine how history, identity, and power might look if those who have been marginalised were suddenly impossible to ignore.

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Country
Palestine
Asia
About the author
Ibtisam Azem
Ibtisam Azem

Ibtisam Azem is a Palestinian novelist, short-story writer, and journalist born in Taybeh, a Palestinian town near Jaffa. Based in New York, she has worked as a journalist covering Middle Eastern affairs and has contributed to Arabic-language and international media. Her literary work explores displacement, memory, exile, identity, and the complex relationship between Palestinians and their homeland. Her most acclaimed novel, The Book of Disappearance (Sifr al-Ikhtifa, 2014), imagines a world in which all Palestinians living in Israel suddenly vanish overnight. Through alternating perspectives, the novel examines historical memory, collective identity, privilege, and the consequences of erasing an entire people from public consciousness. The work has attracted international attention for its imaginative premise and its exploration of how societies remember—or suppress—their histories. Azem’s writing combines psychological depth with political reflection, using speculative elements and intimate storytelling to examine belonging, loss, and the enduring effects of displacement on Palestinian life.

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Published
2014
Author
Ibtisam Azem