A Rift in Time: Travels with My Ottoman Uncle

An engrossing family memoir that shines a light on Palestine’s history, offering a wise, sobering view of how radically conditions there have changed since the late Ottoman Empire, from the award-winning author of We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I.

Raja Shehadeh’s great-great-uncle Najib Nassar, a journalist born in 1865, spent the first 4 decades of his life under the Ottoman Empire. Ruled by a Muslim Sultan, the region nevertheless saw the coexistence of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, and a freedom of movement unthinkable in the present-day Middle East. On a 2-year quest to discover Najib’s fascinating story, Shehadeh follows his footsteps through what are now Lebanon and Israel, tracing the fall of the Empire after World War I and the disastrous British Mandate.

A family memoir written in luminescent prose, A Rift in Time also reflects on how Palestine—in particular the disputed Jordan Rift Valley—has been transformed. Most of Palestine’s history and that of its people is buried deep in the ground: whole villages have disappeared, and names have been erased from the map. Yet by seeing the bigger picture of the landscape and the unending struggle for freedom as Shehadeh does, it is still possible to look toward a better future.