Sana Mukarker-Schwippert
Memory of the Eyes
Ilex, Berlin, 2024
Hardcover with black print and red embossing
160 pages, 136 × 214 mm
Arabic, German
ISBN 978-3-9824979-0-7
Fifty short stories, translated from Arabic by Laila El Dsoki. With sixteen ink drawings by Stephan Fiedler.
Sana Mukarker-Schwippert, born in Bethlehem (Palestine), studied English literature and education in Bethlehem, worked as a teacher of English in Germany and abroad, works as a journalist. She lives with her family in Berlin. Augengedächtnis (Memory of the Eyes) is her second book after Wäre die Erde schön, wäre Gott nicht im Himmel (If Life on Earth Were Pleasent, God Would Not Live in Heaven), published in 2019.
“Behind the short, bilingual texts in Arabic and German lie astute observations of brief encounters in everyday life in the big city, of home and its loss, of loneliness and human togetherness. [...] Sana Mukarker-Schwippert’s texts emerge from a kind of intuition and serve her as a form of coming to terms with the past. It is not possible for her to return to her Palestinian homeland permanently. The longing for her homeland and the incessant feeling of foreignness are omnipresent in her life. It is therefore hardly surprising that a subtle sense of melancholy resonates in the stories.” (Lydia Paul)