World Literature Reading Group

Our World Literature Reading Group aims to showcase literature written outside of the anglophone world. On our journey we will make a variety of stops in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean, Latin America, and Oceania, tracking down the masterpieces that have otherwise been overlooked. In this eighth group, we will read and discuss Ghassan Kanafani’s Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories.

Three Palestinian men embark on a brutal and treacherous odyssey across the Iraqi desert to Kuwait, not for liberation but material betterment. Under the indifferent brutality of border bureaucracy and the blank aggression of the sun, things grow increasingly oppressive. Breezily conversational and disarmingly lyrical, this short novel delivers a shuddering dose of horror.

“Every now and then in a reading life you pick up a book that leaves an inexpressible imprint on your head and heart. Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories is one. A mere 100 pages long, you nevertheless feel the weight of a history of pain and violence that a nation and its people suffered and continues to suffer.” (NJ McGarrigle, The Irish Independent)

“[...] the impact Kanafani has had within Palestinian national consciousness can never be described through simple words. In the struggle for Palestinian self-determination, Kanafani will always hold centre stage. While we may choose to remember him as a colossus of a literary figure, as a towering ideologue, a committed practitioner or as a deeply beloved human being, Kanafani remains a Palestinian national icon, second to none.” (Viswesh Rammohan, Marx & Philosophy Review of Books)