In this masterpiece, Hashem Gharaibeh tells the moving story of a political prisoner during Jordan's martial law era, which spanned 1967 to 1989. He defies the taboos of politics, sex, and religion to tell a thrilling and brutally honest story about the horrors and insanities of everyday life in an Arab prison
In his masterpiece The Cat Who Taught Me How to Fly Hashem Gharaibeh defies the taboos of politics, sex, and religion to tell the moving story of a political prisoner during Jordan's martial law era. At once both a novel and an autobiography, the author draws from his own experiences as a Jordanian youth arrested and imprisoned for nearly a decade for his affiliation with the Jordanian Communist Party. The novel uniquely portrays prison culture intertwined with tribal, ideological, and political perspectives to explain both mundane and esoteric aspects of prison life in this time and era, illustrating an experience that is traumatic, humane, and inspiring.
