The lanterns of the king of Galilee

The seventh novel in his literary project (The Palestinian Tragedy) alongside The Time of the White Horses, The Child of the Eraser, The Birds of Caution, The Olive Trees of the Streets, Safe Weddings, and Under the Sun of Dawn. With the publication of this novel, The Palestinian Tragedy has covered a spiritual, national, and human temporal space over 250 years of modern Palestinian history. The new novel spans 555 pages, and in the introduction by the publishers it states: (Qanadeel Malak Al-Jalil) a foundational novel, not only in terms of the novelistic writing that travels far in Palestinian history, mainly the late 17th century and almost the entire 18th century (1689-1775), but also in its deeper search for the foundations of forming identity and the human self in this region extending between two seas: the Sea of Galilee (Tiberias) and the Sea of Acre. An epic climax elevates Ibrahim Nasrallah’s literary project, and the Palestinian tragedy project in particular, to a lofty position, as he writes the epic of that leader (Zahir Al-‘Umar Al-Zaidani) who revolted against Ottoman rule and its pursuit to establish the first modern political and national entity in Palestine, and the first national entity in the Arab East. This unique leader whose borders of his (state) extended from Palestine to many regions outside it. This novel traverses history and illuminates it brilliantly with real and imaginary characters, moving between Palestine, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, and Istanbul, filling history with great values and questions of love, death, fate, and the relationship with nature in its deepest manifestations, contemplating the spiritual and mythological history of Palestine, and simultaneously restoring the Palestinian national struggle’s proud history, focusing on a unique historical leader in understanding the values of dignity, justice, liberation, the right to life, and religious tolerance to an extent of vastness and nobility beyond the usual. Author: Ibrahim Nasrallah Number of pages: 559