The Palace on the Higher Hill won the 2021 Prix des Cinq Continents de la Francophonie and has now been translated into English by Jeffrey Zuckerman. It is published on 2nd April and can be pre-ordered now. Karim Kattan will join us for an event on Wednesday 7th May. Tickets are £5 including a glass of wine or soft drink and can be booked online or in the shop here.

French bistro Pierre Victoire on Little Clarendon Street are kindly offering 10% off for ticketholders dining after this event. Please email [email protected] to book a table.

This event was made possible with the support of the Institut Français in London.

This novel follows Faysal after he receives a mysterious letter about the death of an aunt he can’t remember. Leaving his lover and his life in Europe behind, he returns to the village of his birth in Palestine and to his family’s extraordinary, deserted house, the palace on the higher hill. With a backdrop of violence and the permanent threat from settlers, Faysal wanders the once-lavish rooms as characters from the past return to shed light on his family story and on the story of his people.

In beautiful, angry prose, Karim Kattan introduces us to an intimate Palestine of the imagination where dreams and nightmares are in constant conflict. With hints of One Hundred Years of Solitude and Brideshead Revisited, he gives a nuanced deeply moving vision of the tragedy of war and a picture of his homeland that feels entirely new to English-speaking readers.