It's hard to imagine a high school student writing a book that causes an international outcry, but Randa Ghazy's Dreaming of Palestine has faced being banned under a hate-speech statute in France and condemnation from a number of Jewish and humanitarian groups.
Originally published in Italy last spring, the novel imagines the lives of a number of young Palestinians during the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict. Ghazy, who is now 16, drew on facts from newspapers and TV reports in writing her first book. Born in Italy to Egyptian parents, she has never been to the Palestinian territories and had never met a Palestinian until after the book was published, according to a New York Times profile that ran last December. Even so, the novel has been praised by some as an insightful depiction of the misery and frustration among Palestinians, while critics claim that it vilifies Israelis and praises suicide bombing.
Now the controversy might arrive on these shores. George Braziller, Inc., a small, independent publisher of fine art books, poetry and fiction, has acquired the U.S. rights from Rizzoli. "It might not be a masterpiece of literature, but it's a well-written, moving piece of writing," said publisher George Braziller of the 212-page book. "It's a passionate, critical story of the Israeli government and the occupation." Last week, galleys were sent to newspapers and magazines around the country, and to some columnists and a variety of bookstores. The first press run of 5,000 hardcover copies, which will retail at around $20, will be available this week.
"I've always looked for and responded to controversial books," said Braziller, who has been an independent publisher for 47 years. In 1993, he published For Rushdie, a compilation of essays by Arab and Muslim writers opposing the fatwah against author Salman Rushdie, which led to so many threatening phone calls that Braziller had to change his number.
Still, the possibility of negative reception worries Braziller. In fact, the first designer he asked to create the cover design refused the work because of the book's content. "There might be ramifications I might not even know about," he said, mentioning potential court costs and the damage any sort of boycott might cause, not only for this book but also for all Braziller titles.
In fact, Dreaming of Palestine has already incited controversy in the U.S., even before anyone knew of the American edition. This month, the bimonthly newsletter of the College Art Association carries a letter to the editor signed by 53 students and scholars criticizing book's Italian publisher. Marcia Kupfer, an independent scholar who read Dreaming in both French and Italian before writing and circulating the letter, said the gesture isn't intended as an act of censorship, but to repudiate Rizzoli, whose American publishing arm exhibited at the book and trade fair at CAA's annual conference in February.
"[Ghazy] is not Anne Frank," she stated. "As a text, [the book is] so loaded with bloodthirsty rhetoric.... [We're] not saying no to free speech, we're objecting to the fact that Rizzoli, which promotes itself as highbrow, gave its imprimatur to work that promotes Judeophobia." She also called it "a kind of publishing strategy designed to make money by appealing to base emotions."
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, one of the groups that spearheaded the fight against the book in France, said that he and the organization would try to organize massive protest against an American edition of the book.
Whether or not that comes about, Braziller stands by the novel. Not only did he put Voltaire's maxim, "Although I may disapprove of what you say, I will defend to the death your right to say it" on the cover of the catalogue that contains Dreaming, he believes the novel deals with important issues and has passages that are optimistic and hopeful. "Every now and then, there's a book that gets you started again and feeling good about your profession," he said.
