Palestinian Walks. Notes on a Vanishing Landscape

Palestinian Walks book cover

London: Profile Books, 2007

Raja Shehadeh, who graduated from AUB in 1973 with a BA in English literature, won the prestigious British Orwell Prize for Palestinian Walks in 2008. Two Orwell awards are offered each year for political writing-one for literary and one for journalistic merit.

Shehadeh's work falls clearly in the literary category, as he lovingly describes "walking in the hills around Ramallah, in the wadis in the Jerusalem wilderness and through the gorgeous ravines by the Dead Sea." He makes subtle use of his training in both English literature and law to make the reader actually experience the pain of watching the beautiful Palestinian countryside slide relentlessly into Israeli hands.

Shaping his work around six walks he took in the hills around Ramallah between 1978 and 2006, he describes in intimate detail the plants, flowers, animals, birds, and rocks along his path. He revels in the unfolding views of desert and sea, and even records what he believes to be dinosaur footprints. He succeeds in his goal "to persuade the reader how glorious the land of Palestine is, despite all the destruction that has been wrought over the past quarter of a century."