Men in the Sun

and Other Palestinian Stories

Paperback, 117 pages

English language

Published Jan. 1, 1999 by Lynne Rienner.

ISBN:
978-0-89410-857-0
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5 stars (3 reviews)

Men in the Sun (Arabic: رجال في الشمس, romanized: Rijāl fī al-Shams) is a novel by Palestinian writer and political activist Ghassan Kanafani (1936–72), originally published in 1962. Men in the Sun follows three Palestinian refugees seeking to travel from the refugee camps in Iraq, where they cannot find work, to Kuwait where they hope to find work as laborers in the oil boom.

2 editions

Goodreads Review of Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories

4 stars

This is an incredible collection of Kanafani’s novella, “Men in the Sun,” as well as some of his short stories.

It goes without saying that “Men in the Sun” is the stand out piece in the collection, and it feels a lot like Steinbeck’s Grape of Wrath until it ends. It’s rich with symbolism, and the sense of impotence—both figurative and literal—pervades the novella.

The rest of the stories are more variable, but I really liked “Falcon,” which had a lot of symbolism, as well as “A Hand in the Grave.”

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