In 1996 Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti went back to his home for the first time since exile following the Six-Day War in 1967, and wrote a poignant and incisive account of the exile’s lot in the acclaimed memoir I Saw Ramallah. In 2003 he returned to Ramallah to introduce his Cairo-born son, Tamim Barghouti, to his Palestinian family.
I Was Born There, I Was Born Here traces Barghouti’s own life in recent years and in the past—his early life in Palestine, his expulsion from Cairo and exile to Budapest, marriage and the birth of his son, Tamim, and then the young man’s own expulsion from Cairo—and tells the story of the Palestinian journey of father and son.
Ranging freely back and forth in time, Barghouti weaves into his poetically crafted account sensitive evocations of Palestinian history and daily life. I Was Born There, I Was Born Here is destined, like its predecessor, to become a classic.