Enter Ghost

By: Isabella Hammad

Narrated by: Nadia Albina

After years away from her family's homeland, and healing from an affair with an established director, stage actress Sonia Nasir returns to Palestine to visit her older sister Haneen. Though the siblings grew up spending summers at their family home in Haifa, Sonia hasn't been back since the second intifada and the deaths of her grandparents. While Haneen stayed and made a life commuting to Tel Aviv to teach at the university, Sonia remained in London to focus on her burgeoning acting career and now dissolute marriage. On her return, she finds her relationship to Palestine is fragile, both bone-deep and new.

Once at Haneen's, Sonia meets the charismatic and candid Mariam, a local director, and finds herself roped into a production of Hamlet in the West Bank. Soon, Sonia is rehearsing Gertude's lines in classical Arabic and spending more time in Ramallah than in Haifa with a dedicated group of men who, in spite of competing egos and priorities, each want to bring Shakespeare to that side of the wall. As opening night draws closer it becomes clear just how many invasive and violent obstacles stand before a troupe of Palestinian actors. Amidst it all, the life Sonia once knew starts to give way to the daunting, exhilarating possibility of finding a new self in her ancestral home.

A stunning rendering of present-day Palestine, Enter Ghost is a story of diaspora, displacement, and the connection to be found in family and shared resistance. Timely, thoughtful, and passionate, Isabella Hammad's highly anticipated second novel is an exquisite feat, an unforgettable story of artistry under occupation.

©2023 Isabella Hammad (P)2023 Penguin Audio

The very age and body of the time

Nadia Albina's reading is astonishing: a profoundly developed and nuanced performance of a complex and urgently important narrative.

Wow

What an amazing story and gifted narration. Riveting, I am sure I will be revisiting this book.

Amazing, complex story.

So complex I was sent to the text itself, but I return through audio for a second take.

Beautiful writing

The writer tells these story of a fragmented people beautifully. Masterfully blending story of Hamlet into the life of its performers , how it means so much more than a play is noticeable and how the historical & daily struggles of the inhabitants of the land just to live an ordinary life is so fueled with strong emotions like in the story of the play.

Contrast Israel/palestine

I found this book very interesting and thought provoking. It didn’t really take sides just seemed to portray the situation. I don’t really like the end and thought it was a bit of a cop out, but perhaps it has to and that way ie same old same old with no resolution to the situation.

Enter Ghost

Superb! Theatre of the Superb. Great story, very lifelike. We know the characters portrayed. Great choice of wording, Great plot. Great reading.

A 20 Chapter book with a three chapter plot

I waited until the end of this book to really see a glimpse of what it was to experience being an artist in occupied land. Unfortunately, this book plotted along like an endless Seinfeld episode with nothing happening, and the characters reacting to the nothing with total dead pan reaction. It was not until the very end that we began to see what we were probably supposed to understand halfway through this novel.

I read this to increase my understanding of the political situation for Palestinians in this world. I have another book ready to fill in the gaps.

So many gripping story lines!

I read The Parisian and loved it. Enter Ghost may be completely different, but the common themes of searching for self and national identity, the challenges of love and family run across both books. Sonja is a reflective and fascinating narrator whose honesty and reflexivity I could not get enough of. Gammas makes every scene come alive with detail so the story is a film running before our eyes. The turmoil of Palestine and the heartless occupation is the backdrop and the foreground.

Timely story told through Shakespeare in Palestine

Creative and elegant use of several languages. The view from inside Israel and Palestine as a therapeutic drama company performs Hamlet. Lovely narration. You are there.

Mounting Hsmlet in Palestine from the Palestinian Perspective

Excellent use of Hamlet to illuminate the plight of the Palestinians. The difficulties mounting the play is a microcosm of the difficulties encountered by Palestinians in the West Bank. It is refreshing and enlightening to see this story through the eyes of a Palestinian.