Hammad baily biography books

Interview

An Interview with Isabella Hammad, author of The Parisian, and how her own family history effected her writing.

I noticed that one of the families in Nablus in the novel shares your last name, Hammad.

Is there a connection there to your personal history?

The Hammads in the novel are based on my grandmother's maternal family; my surname actually comes from the man she married, my grandfather, who was from a separate branch of the same family.

Hammad baily biography books

The main character, Midhat Kamal, is based loosely on my great grandfather, and the basic frame of the novel is inspired by stories I was told about Midhat when I was a child. In writing about the fictional Midhat, the principal question in my mind was: how does a young man like this, from Nablus, end up becoming "The Parisian"?

My answer was in part a love story, but also a story about selfhood, dislocation, and longing, not only for people but also for place.

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