When Mona moved from California to teach conflict resolution in a school in Ramallah for a year, she kept a journal. Within its pages, she wrote her impressions of her homeland, a place she had only experienced through her mother’s memories.

As she settles into her teaching role, getting to know the children, Mona also embarks on a personal pilgrimage to find her mother’s home in Jerusalem.

After fifty-nine years of exile, Mona’s eighty-four-year-old mother held her daughter’s hand as they visited Jerusalem together, walking the narrow cobblestone alleys of the Old City. Mona had dreamed of being guided by her mother down the old souqs, and the leafy streets of her neighbourhood listening to the muezzin’s call for prayer and the medley of church bells. But now their roles were reversed. Mona had become her Mama’s legs and her memory – and the one to tell her story going forward.

Claire Bord said:

‘As soon as I started reading Mona’s beautifully written and evocative story I was completely swept away. It’s such an intimate and tender account of Palestinian life as never seen before. It’s at once a deeply personal account and a story with universal themes of family, belonging and identity. I’m incredibly proud to be publishing Mona’s book.’

Mona commented:

‘No words can describe how moved I am to have signed my book contract with Thread! My mother’s Palestinian story will finally be shared with a greater audience. I am fortunate to have found a publisher that values stories of self-discovery and identity, and I’m profoundly grateful that the Thread family immediately recognized and embraced the true message of my story.’

Claire Bord acquired World rights directly from the author and will publish in ebook, audio and print on 14^th May 2021.