The Hollow Half by Sarah Aziza

From award-winning Palestinian American journalist Sarah Aziza, a deeply intimate memoir at the intersection of personal trauma and cultural displacement.

When she is hospitalized for an eating disorder in 2019, Aziza comes face to face with the devastation of anorexia– fellow patients with permanent heart damage, edema, and other conditions. She realizes that while treatment will support her weight restoration, it does little in the way of addressing underlying traumas. When she is discharged months later, the hospital staff have low expectations for her recovery.


Aziza's symptoms soon return, alongside haunting dreams of family, forcing her to confront the tragedy of her history. This means revisiting the stories of her father, who was born in a refugee camp in Gaza and was seven when war displaced him. It means revisiting painful memories of sexual assault, mental and physical illness, and times that her Palestinian identity has been called into question.

Releasing April, The Hollow Half is a remarkable exploration of survival against the odds. By weaving together her own battle with anorexia and the history of her Palestinian roots, Aziza demonstrates the impact of war on future generations while creating a layered narrative that speaks to the complexities of identity in the Palestinian diaspora.


Courtesy Sarah Aziza

Sarah Aziza is a Palestinian American writer, translator, and artist with roots in ‘Ibdis and Deir al-Balah, Gaza. The recipient of a Fulbright fellowship and numerous grants from the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, she has lived and worked in Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Jordan, South Africa, the West Bank, and the United States. Her award-winning journalism, poetry, essays, and experimental nonfiction have appeared in The New Yorker, The Baffler, Harper’s Magazine, Mizna, Lux, The Washington Post, The Intercept, The Rumpus, NPR, The Margins, and The Nation, among other publications.

The Hollow Half: A Memoir of Bodies and Borders is on sale April 22nd and is available for pre-order now. Check Bookshop.org to support an indie near you. 

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