On Sunday, April 22, the London-based Palestinian author, Samir el-Youssef, spoke about his much praised first book in English, The Illusion of Return, published by Peter Halban. The meeting took place at Hashomer House, and Samir took questions from the floor after a short interview with Lawrence Joffe in the chair. It was a lively and memorable meeting, and we thank Samir for his frank, entertaining and always thought-provoking address!
Samir el-Youssef's previous work in English was Gaza Blues, a joint work with the Israeli author Etgar Keret, consisting of short stories by Keret and el-Youssef's longer novella, The Day the Beast got Thirsty.
Born in a refugee camp in southern Lebanon, Samir arrived in Britain in 1990, studied philosophy at Birkbeck College, London University, and wrote reviews and essays for a number of Arabic language publications, including Asharq al-Awsat and Al-Hayat. His work was also published in the literary magazine, Banipal. In addition, Samir has written in English in such diverse publications as The Guardian, The New Statesman, The Jewish Quarterly and Jewish Chronicle.
Samir El-Youssef lives in Muswell Hill, London. In 2005 he won the Tucholsky Prize from Swedish PEN. The award, established in 1984, is given every year to a writer or a publisher who is either being persecuted or threatened, or is living in exile.
Past winners have included Adam Zagajevski, Bei Dao, Nuruddin Farah, Salman Rushdie, Taslima Nasrin, Svetlana Alexievich, Salim Barakat, Asiye Guzel Zeybek, Rajko Djuric, Jun Feng and Yvonne Vera. The prize is named in honour of the German Jewish satirist and essayist, Kurt Tucholsky, who wrote during the Weimar Republic period, immigrated to Sweden in 1930 and died in 1935. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Tucholsky
Meretz UK recommends the following profile of Samir by Matthew Reisz, which appeared in The Independent on January 19 this year: http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/features/article2163455.ece
For more on El-Youssef's publishers, Halban Books:
http://www.halbanpublishers.com