Through a young’s man personal journey from Nablus in Palestine (nowadays in northern West bank) to Paris, during World War I to his return in Palestine at the dawn of its battle for independence, Isabella Hammad illuminates an important period of Palestinian history.

The Parisian starts with Midhat’s arrival in France, to study medicine at Monpellier in South France. He is falling in love with a woman in France and France in general, and when he goes back to Nablus at the end of the war, the Ottoman Empire has been defeated, the British and the French have defined future spheres of control in the Middle East and the Arabs are starting to fight for their independence. While his country convulses, Midhat undergoes his own personal fight, contending with the demands of his inner life influenced by his life in France and the obligations to his family and his community at that period of rapture.

The Parisian is an ambitious, and thought-provoking debut novel. It’s a historical epic that captures a man’s search for identity and love and a nation’s dream and fight for independence.