Umm Saad

“She stands now under cover of low hanging despair, high up the frontlines of battle. She pushes forward and, more than anyone else, continues to pay forward.” This is how Kanafani presented Palestinian motherhood when he wrote his 1969 novel. It is as though Umm Saad herself is the point at which his previous works converge. She is a character lost in a previous novel, obscured and hidden between the lines, within other characters, unannounced until the time is right.