Al Subbar - Cactus

Sahar Khalifeh Is considered the foremost Palestinian author and feminists in the Arab world, widely acclaimed for being the first feminist Palestinian writer, and for her sensitive, economical and lucid style. Her fame extends beyond Palestinian and Arab boarders, as her translations in many languages attest. After the defeat of the Arab states in the 1967 war against Israel, and in the midst of what Khalifeh describes as a "miserable, devastating" marriage, Khalifeh began to write her first novel and severed her marriage against of the norms of both her family and Palestinian society. The Arab defeat in the war of 1967 spurred Khalifeh towards new modes of thinking and creativity which led her greatly towards furthering her writing career. Praise from the Press Sahar Khalifeh "is the Virginia Woolf of Palestinian - Arabic literature." Borsenblatt "Her characters are so real you can actually relate to them by mistaking them for someone you know." The Daily Star - Jordan "The one Arab novelist who has written one novel after another to show the inseparability of feminist issues from social and political concerns is the Palestinian novelist Sahar Khalifeh, whom I consider the best Arab woman novelist in the twentieth century." Professor Buthaina Shaaban