Cactus Pear for My Beloved

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Cactus Pear for My Beloved
Cactus Pear for My Beloved book cover.jpg
Author Samah Sabawi
GenreMemoir
Publisher Penguin Random House
Publication date
17 September 2024
Publication placeAustralia
Pages336
ISBN 9781761344978

Cactus Pear for My Beloved is a 2024 book by Palestinian-Australian author Samah Sabawi. [1] The book recounts the life of Sabawi's father Abdul Karim Sabawi, a Palestinian poet whose family experienced the Nakba during his childhood and who was exiled from Gaza after the Six-Day War, eventually settling in Queensland. [2]

Contents

Reception

The book was reviewed in The Conversation , [2] The Saturday Paper , [3] The Age , [4] and the Journal of Holy Land and Palestine Studies . [5] In her review for The Conversation , Michelle Hamadache praised Sabawi's ability to blend a deeply-researched historical account of her family history with fictionalised and dramatised elements. [2] The book was shortlisted for the Stella Prize, where the judging panel wrote that the book had a "glorious sweeping scope and a light, elegant touch". [6]

Awards

Awards for
YearAwardCategoryResultRef.
2025 Stella Prize —Shortlisted [7] [6]
NSW Literary Awards Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-fictionShortlisted [8]

References

  1. ↑ "Cactus Pear For My Beloved". Penguin Random House. Retrieved 12 April 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 Hamadache, Michelle (21 October 2024). "Exile, resistance and cactus pears: two Australian writers' depictions of Palestinian life weave a powerful tapestry of stories". The Conversation. Retrieved 12 April 2025.
  3. ↑ Grbec, Monique (21 September 2024). "Cactus Pear for My Beloved". The Saturday Paper. Retrieved 12 April 2025.
  4. ↑ Ayoub, Sarah (13 December 2024). "A moving insight into one Palestinian family's generations of survival". The Age. Retrieved 12 April 2025.
  5. ↑ Sahhar, Micaela (April 2025). "Samah Sabawi, Cactus Pear for My Beloved: A Family Story from Gaza". Journal of Holy Land and Palestine Studies. 24 (1): 121–123. doi: 10.3366/hlps.2025.0354 .
  6. 1 2 "Samah Sabawi – Cactus Pear For My Beloved". Stella Prize. Retrieved 12 April 2025.
  7. ↑ Jefferson, Dee (7 April 2025). "Stella Prize 2025: Shortlist entirely women of colour for the first time in award's history". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 April 2025.
  8. ↑ "Cactus Pear For My Beloved". State Library of New South Wales. 27 April 2025. Retrieved 19 May 2025.
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