All that Remains is Absence

Written by Ibtisam Azem and translated from Arabic by Sinan Antoon, The Book of Disappearance is a work of speculative fiction about the sudden disappearance of Palestinians from Israel, vanishing from homes, hospitals, and even imprisonment camps.

- By SHARMISTHA JHA

Following the story of Alaa's disappearance, along with that of all Palestinians, and the responses of Israelis, the book feels increasingly close to reality. After Alaa vanishes, his Israeli friend Ariel, a self-proclaimed left-leaning journalist, discovers a notebook Alaa had been keeping to write his memoir.

"Yesterday marked twenty days since they bombed Gaza. That's what I initially wanted to say, but it wasn't how I wanted to begin. They were pulling corpses out of the rubble as if they were dolls," Alaa writes. "I say 'bombed Gaza' and not 'declared war on it' because war sounds lighter. War was a big word when I was young. But I grew bigger and it grew smaller."