Ishmael’s Oud: A father-son journey into Occupied Palestine

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At once a memoir and biography, a father and son contend with the fragility of their own relationship in Occupied Palestine. This exciting new work explores the discovery of identity and love, apartheid and trauma.

Mark Rafidi is an alien in a foreign land, yet he hears the land of his forefathers sing to him. It will signpost his roots. It will offer a cup of suffering he must drink from. It will challenge him to move from indifference to empathy. His father, Ishmael, is returning to a past he tried to exorcise. Even though he fled after the Six Day War, he hasn’t forgotten the land which belongs to him like a mother.

Ishmael’s Oud is a journey from Australia to Jerusalem, from naivete to knowing; the narrative of a son who travels through memory’s alley and finds out what it means to be both Palestinian and Australian.