Now Longlisted for Booker International Prize 2021

3.5-4*

Minor Detail is another intriguing entry in Fitzcarraldo catalogue of hits. The small press from London is probably my favorite right now and you will see me review a lot more books published by them this year because I decided to subscribe.

The short novella is divided in two parts. The first half describes a few days in the life of an Israeli platoon delegated to survey the Egyptian border soon after the proclamation of the state of Israel. The episode culminates with the discovery and murder of a group of unarmed nomadic Arabs and the rape and killing of the only female that was found with them. The 2nd part is written in 1st person and is the story of a young woman who becomes obsessed by the crime carried out many years before. She tries to find more details about what happened but she is forced to deal with all the limitations that are imposed by the Israelis towards Palestinians (border checks, basses, walls, suspicion).

After I finished, I closed my Kindle and stayed there silent and baffled. I was touched by the book, I thought it held power but I could not say why. Not immediately at least. Now, two weeks after I finished I think I have a better idea but still I am not entirely sure what the attraction is. The writing is simple, full of minor details, as the titles says. For example, the daily habits of the platoon commander are presented in painful details, the way he dresses, washes and cleans his festering wound is repeated over and over again. However, instead of annoying me, it made the characters more vivid and it somehow transported me in 1949’s Middle East desert. A number of the repetitive motifs from the 1st part are transported in the 2nd part. The barking of a dog, the water, the border, the sand, and all those “minor details” contributed to connecting the two parts.
The tone of the novel was matter of fact, it did not directly judge. However, I felt the use of a festering bite wound as a sort of excuse for the poor judgment made by the commander a bit strange. I think those crimes happen without needing an excuse. It is the way of the war to somehow dehumanize the enemy and commit despicable acts towards it, acts that one wouldn’t normally even consider doing. While I am writing this, I wonder if the sepsis that was spreading in the soldier’s body is not a symbol of the spreading of hate towards the Palestinians.booker-international-2021 fitzcarraldo-editions palestine366 s8 comments Lilyya ?334 2,042

”sometimes it’s inevitable for the past to be forgotten, especially if the present is no less horrific.”
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