They Fell Like Stars From the Sky x Sheikha Helawy, Nancy Roberts (tr.) (DRC)

128 pages.

First published April 16, 2024 (Neem Tree Press)

Fiction anthology.

I devoured this collection of eighteen short stories from Palestine—about Bedouin village life, and mostly about women—in one sitting. It declares its intention in the opening story, about a young girl who decides to cut off her traditional braid as she now goes to the local convent, and wants to conform. Her mother disapproves, but allows it (and calls her horrible names in the process). Many of the stories in the collection are about the pressures of “modernity” on traditional ways of life; but traditional ways of life are often oppressive to women, and this comes through clearly in stories like W-h-o-r-e, a hard-hitting look into the mind of a man obsessed with his sister’s chastity and his own honour, and Ali, about a husband whose jealousy appears to have led to a terrible crime.

The freedom of young women to choose their lives and futures is a recurring theme: The Day My Donkey Died, Barbed Question, The Door to the Body, All the Love I’ve Known all touch on this. They Fell Like Stars From the Sky is the beautiful heart of the book, and says almost everything the book does in a few pages: the plight of villagers in an “unrecognised” Palestinian village, the freedom of boys against the strictures on the lives of girls, and the courage of girls to change things, their pushing boundaries making a way for older women, too.

The wonderful thing is that Helawy brings not just sympathy to these stories, but also humour and nuance: women and girls as multidimensional beings. Umm Kulthum, the grandmother of the narrator of Umm Kulthum’s Intercessor, has a musical idol, and works through her shock and horror from her bed when she finds out something truly unexpected (I loved the touches of fabulism); Aunt Aisha in “God Bless Toun Field” is a football superfan, and not even her husband’s asthma is allowed to interrupt her.

Helawy brings readers into the intimate parts of these characters’ lives, into their thoughts, and the closed spaces of family and culture; but above all, she gives voice to women and girls in a culture that would keep them silent. A fantastic read, highly recommended.

Thank you to Neem Tree Press and to NetGalley for early access.

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