In 1976, Nahlah Ayed's family gave
up their comfortable life in Winnipeg for the squalor of a
Palestinian refugee camp in Amman, Jordan. The transition was
jarring, but it was from this uncomfortable situation that Ayed
first observed the people whose heritage she shared. The family
returned to Canada when she was thirteen, and Ayed ignored the
Middle East for many years. But the First Gulf War and the events
of 9/11 reignited her interest. Soon she was reporting from the
region full-time, trying to make sense of the wars and upheavals
that have affected its people and sent so many of them seeking a
better life elsewhere.
In A Thousand Farewells, Ayed
describes with sympathy and insight the myriad ways in which the
Arab people have fought against oppression and loss as seen from
her own early days witnessing protests in Amman, and the wars,
crackdowns, and uprisings she has reported on in countries across
the region.
This is the heartfelt and personal
chronicle of a journalist who has devoted much of her career to
covering one of the world's most vexing regions.