Family Shadows

What does it mean to live in Jerusalem today, carrying the legacy of a tribe that abandoned the wilderness, as described in the previous two parts of Mahmoud Shuqair's trilogy: "The Family's Mare" and "In Praise of the Women of the Family"? The descendants and great-grandchildren know how much of their heritage lies on the road here, and who among the heirs will settle down... The descendants and great-grandchildren live in diaspora within the settled home, burdened by unemployment, need, the closing of horizons, and the values ​​of imposed rigidity. One of them is still haunted by the ghosts of his past—people, places, and stories—and he speaks of the ancestors' intimacy and tranquility in the land they inhabit, in the eyes of a beloved. She comes from a bygone era like his own. Qais and Yali are contemporaries. Now here. In material and idealized parts, social and religious obligations and commitments. Two lovers of ink and paper in a storyteller's notebook, tainted by the chronicling of an entire tribe's transformations, stories, and pulse throughout time. Two lovers, their story lost between fantasy and reality, conclude a family saga that encapsulates the story of a homeland. What does it mean to live in Jerusalem today, carrying the legacy of an ancient clan that left the wilderness in the previous two parts of Mahmoud Shuqair's trilogy, "The Family's Mare" and "In Praise of the Women of the Family"? The grandchildren and great-grandchildren are unaware of how much of their heritage was lost along the way, nor how many of the original inheritors perished...
Grandchildren and great-grandchildren experience diaspora as they live within the stolen homeland, adapting to unemployment, destitution, closed horizons, and unfamiliar values ​​of purging.
One of them is still haunted by the ghosts of his past—people, places, stories—searching for the intimacy and tranquility of his ancestors in the land they inhabited, through the eyes of a lover from a time as ancient as himself. A contemporary tale of Qays and Layla. Here, in this moment. Facing guns and the repercussions of classism, social and religious cleansing. Two lovers, of ink and paper, in a storybook tainted by the observation of an entire clan's transformation, its stories and its pulse through the years. The thread separating fiction from reality is lost in the story of these two lovers who conclude a family saga that encapsulates the story of a nation.