Palestinian writer, novelist, and journalist Rabee Al-Madhoun seeks the perfect opening for his novel telling his family’s story—a family that lived through the Nakba. Since then, they moved from city to city, home to home, afraid of the darkness left by wars, mourning a lost homeland, enduring separation and exile for years, almost forgetting the voices of their loved ones.

Rabee begins his novel on the day of his birth, introducing us to his family tree, from his grandfather Saleem, to his father, uncles, their wives, and his younger brother Rassem.

How did Rabee grow up in a city torn by war, in a displaced family? Was war alone responsible for their separation, or was separation inevitable?