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Sign up todayWe Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I
A Palestinian Memoir
Narrator
Peter Ganim
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Length
5 hours 8 minutes
Language
English
2023 National Book Award Finalist for Nonfiction
A subtle psychological portrait of the author’s relationship with his father during the twentieth-century battle for Palestinian human rights
Aziz Shehadeh was many things: lawyer, activist, and political detainee. He was also the father of bestselling author and activist Raja. In this searingly personal memoir, Raja Shehadeh unpicks the snags and complexities of their relationship.
A vocal and fearless opponent, Aziz resists under the British mandatory period, then under Jordan, and, finally, under Israel. As a young man, Raja fails to recognize his father’s courage, and in turn, his father does not appreciate Raja’s own efforts in campaigning for Palestinian human rights. When Aziz is murdered in 1985, it changes Raja irrevocably.
This is not only the story of the battle against the various oppressors of the Palestinians but also a moving portrait of a particular father and son relationship.
Raja Shehadeh is Palestine’s leading writer. He is also a lawyer and the founder of the pioneering Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq. Shehadeh is the author of several acclaimed books including Strangers in the House, Occupation Diaries, and Palestinian Walks, which won the prestigious Orwell Prize. In 2022 he was named an International Writer of the Royal Society of Literature.
Peter Ganim, an Earphones Award–winning narrator, is an American actor who has appeared on stage, on television, and in film. He has performed voice-over work since 1994.
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Reviews
“Absolutely gripping…His masterly, remorseless selection and accumulation of detail builds an unanswerable case against Palestine’s historic and current oppressors.”
“This personal and gripping memoir…is partly the conversation that Raja Shehadeh wishes he could have had with his murdered father.”
“A clear-eyed, critical, and wise examination of a defining tragedy of the twentieth century—the colonization of Palestine—as refracted through the lens of the fraught relationship between two of Palestine’s leading lawyers, who happen to be father and son.”
“Profoundly personal as well as historically significant…Illustrates how being dispossessed and being occupied are not merely legal or political conditions.”
“Raja’s memoir is a vital history of Aziz’s overlooked achievements; but it is also a son’s love letter to his father.”
“A striking story of loss, heartbreak, and political perfidy.”
“This is a Palestinian memoir that will endure.”
“Shehadeh movingly blends the personal and political in this heartfelt take on his complex relationship with his lawyer father.”
“Ganim’s measured pace and gentle baritone reflect the audiobook’s structure as it unfolds various moments in the Shehadeh family’s history.”
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