In October, after spending 21 years in an Israeli prison, the acclaimed Palestinian novelist and poet Baddem Khandaqji was released and exiled to Egypt, where he was finally reunited with his sister. From his prison cell, Khandaqji wrote two poetry collections, hundreds of essays, and four novels. The most recent of those novels, A Mask the Color of the Sky, won the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2024. A story of identity, exile, and resistance, it follows Nur, an archaeologist residing in a refugee camp in Ramallah who discovers a blue ID card belonging to an Israeli citizen tucked inside the pocket of an old coat. Intrigued, Nur assumes the persona of the card’s owner to gain access to excavation sites in the West Bank, and insight into his oppressor.
