'Fixing its creative gaze on the short story - a form with its own peculiar logic, pacing, and poise - this book is not only the history of a genre, nationally inflected, but a genre through which the three great watersheds of Palestinian history (Nahda, Nakba, and Intifada) are movingly told. In Farag's confident and well-argued study, Sartrean 'litterature engage' takes the form alternately of surrealist phantasmagoria, blunt militancy, and a searing, melancholic interiority. A surprising and informative take on the varied literary portraits of anticolonialism's true acid test.' - Timothy A. Brennan, Professor of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature, University of Minnesota, 'In this beautifully written, textured, and thoughtful book, Farag traces the development of the Palestinian short story and highlights the significance of historical catastrophes, political commitment, and bold aesthetic innovation in the emergence and flourishing of this long-neglected genre. A must read for anyone interested in Palestinian literature and cultural production.' - Laleh Khalili, Professor of Middle East Politics, SOAS, University of London, 'Farag's excellent choice of focus on the short story, one of the most complex and yet understudied genres, further discussion of the aesthetic thrust of the form, its place within the larger literary history in Palestinian and Arabic literature, and its comparability to the force of poetic practices as the celebrated genre of resistance, is most original. Written in a flowing and engaging style, the study ultimately and forcefully fulfils its promise: the ways in which the historian and the political analyst, and their respective disciplines, can benefit from deeper study of Palestinian literary production.' - Ayman A. El-Desouky, Senior Lecturer in Modern Arabic and Comparative Literature, SOAS, University of London