Trees for Absent People

The main events of the novel revolve around a women's bathhouse in the city of Nablus, where Filistia, a university student, works. The bathhouse becomes the secret and permissible space where stories are laid bare just as bodies. Filistia, Fathiya, Bayraqdar, and the father detained in the prisons of the Israeli occupation, all address one another and speak of the homeland, love, life, humanity, and death; each from within the bathhouse that they have permeated. It is a compelling novel for young men and women that carefully shatters the expectations of the reader.