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One of Granta’s best young novelists on rage, identity politics and the need for precision as well as poetryIsabella Hammad, 33, was born in London to a Palestinian father and British-Irish mother. Named last year as one of Granta’s best young British novelists, she is the author of The Parisian (2019) and Enter Ghost, which was shortlisted for this year’s Women’s prize. Her new book, Recognising the Stranger, began as a lecture last autumn at Columbia University to commemorate the Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said, an annual event whose previous speakers include Noam Chomsky and Daniel Barenboim. Hammad’s talk, given nine days before 7 October, explored “narrative turning points”, with a particular focus on the story of Palestine. She spoke to me from Manhattan, where she currently has a fellowship at the New York Public Library.As a novelist, do you hesitate to write nonfiction?
I don’t think of myself as an essayist, and I haven’t written many essays; when I have, they’ve been like this lecture, a creative act involving literary criticism, not straight journalism. I’m a novelist and that’s how I feel comfortable in the world. But there have been times where, under the pressure of my rage, I’ve written because I just need to say something. You know, you work on a novel for years – it’s a different kind of speech act, it’s not making any arguments and you don’t have to inhabit your own opinions. Obviously, there’s a genocide right now: that’s why I’ve been moved to write [nonfiction], just as a person and a human in the world who has felt that need.
The lecture you gave on 28 September 2023 is followed here by a long afterword written in January, three months into Israel’s assault on Gaza. For the reader, the effect is disconcerting in the light of what has passed since.
I found it quite difficult [to write], especially as I’m reciting these horrors, which are horrors, but nothing compared with the numbers that have been killed now. The lecture itself is in this quite contemplative tone, which changes dramatically in the afterword. When something so terrible is happening, it’s not a time to be talking about moral complexity.You refer to Israel as “a militarised society in which dissent is punished” and liken 7 October to an “incredibly violent jailbreak”.
I was being precise. The idea that 7 October was an invasion is completely wrong. This is a captive population in a ghetto, basically. You can’t exercise self-defence against a population that you are occupying militarily. The BBC will shout down a Palestinian guest and say, well, that’s not what the Israelis would say. Of course it’s not what the Israelis would say – they’re upholding an apartheid regime in which they’re exacting a genocide on a captive population. To say that Israel is a militarised state in which dissent is punished is precise. They don’t let journalists into the Gaza Strip; they put in prison people who like a social media post from Gaza. I’m just trying to be precise with language – that’s the least we can do.Recognising the Stranger: On Palestine and Narrative is published on 26 September by Fern Press (£9.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply Continue reading...