Minor Detail

MINOR DETAIL

by Adania Shibli

 

Nominations: Booker Longlist 2021, National Book Finalist 2020

 

Date Read: May 8, 2023

 

I cannot imagine living in a country where violence and war were an everyday part of life. Where the legacy of my country was one of violence. I can’t imagine not being able to travel to certain areas because of my ethnicity. I cannot imagine having land stolen from me or becoming accustomed to the sight of armed military. Yet, this is exactly what the narrator of Minor Detail experiences on the daily.

 

This novella opens with the final patrols of Israelis searching for hideouts from the waning war between Israel and Palestine. Israeli soldiers happen upon a Bedouin settlement and kill all the soldiers, but taking one teenage Palestinian girl captive. While the captain initially tries to keep her safe, he finally ends up raping her and tossing him to the other soldiers for their amusement. She is ultimately used for as long as possible and then killed. This event did actually occur in real life and has been researched as a war crime over 40 years since it happened.

 

In modern time, our female narrator, who may be autistic but who could also have some sort of mental strain as a result of living under occupation, stumbles upon a newspaper article about this incident and is not only horrified but fixated on the fact that her death occurred 25 years to the day before she was born. I cannot figure out why this means so much to her. It’s just a coincidence but this coincidence compels her to research further into this event. She doesn’t like travel and feels unsafe doing so but goes to the settlement where this woman was held to conduct further research in their archives.

 

This journey is significant for our narrator as she is terrified of borders, traveling and the unknown. Throughout Shibli’s prose, minor details prevail as we walk through soap suds, camels eating grass, the smell of petrol, the feeling of sweat, itemized food that is consumed, etc. All of these details help to drive home how brutal this event was and places it in stark relief with the solidity of actual life. This wasn’t just vague history; this was a real girl with real flesh that really suffered.

 

Overall, this novella highlights for me how history cannot just be erased with time. We cannot dismiss events of the past with time because they will always be alive and breathing even if we cannot see them. This was a powerful book with a powerful message. 

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