Sama' al-Quds al-Sabi'ahسماء القدس السابعة

Shortlisted for the 2024 International Prize for Arabic Fiction (Arab Booker), «The Seventh Heaven of Jerusalem» by Palestinian writer Osama al-Eissa»

The Seventh Heaven of Jerusalem takes us to 1970s Jerusalem, when the city is suffering a famine in the wake of a second war in twenty years, and is struggling to come to terms with its trauma under occupation. The novel celebrates place and characters living in the city of holy texts and destiny; yet it also questions unchallenged assumptions, popular slogans and even the sacrifices of the early freedom fighters who – despite the enormity of those sacrifices – failed to liberate the city. The Jerusalem portrayed in heroic songs and official pronouncements is not the Jerusalem of the people, who always end up paying the price. Nor do those versions represent the city trapped in roughly a square kilometre of walls for centuries, enduring incurable wounds enduring incurable wounds, and the rule of one occupier after another, each more violent than the last. This novel does not show Jerusalem as written by the victors. It is, rather, the intractable Jerusalem which is described here, with its inhabitants from many different races and backgrounds; the other Jerusalem of ordinary, defeated people. - (arabicfiction.org)

Osama al-Eissa is a Palestinian writer and journalist, born in Dheisha refugee camp, Bethlehem, in 1963. In 1984, he published his first short story collection «We, the Poor, Are Still the Most Capable of Love». He moved to Jordan in 1987 and worked as a journalist for various Arab and Palestinian newspapers, becoming editor-in chief of the weekly Al-Sada paper. He has published several novels, including «Al Maskobiya» (2010) and «The Madmen of Bethlehem» (2013); six academic and historical books, including «The Scrolls of the Dead Sea» (2003); and four short story collections. He has also completed research for documentary films about Palestinian culture and politics. Al-Eissa has won a number of prizes, including a merit award from the Return to Oral History Prize for his research «Tales from the Ground in Jerusalem»; The Arab Prize for Creativity for his novel «Al Maskobiya»; and the 2015 Sheikh Zayed Book Award for Literature, for «The Madmen of Bethlehem».