Susan Muaddi Darraj: 'My writing has changed forever by what's happening in Gaza'

Fictionable

This Summer podcast series has brought us Samantha Harvey, Patrick Cash, Carolina Bruck – translated by Ellen Jones – and Jack Klausner. We bring it to a close with Susan Muaddi Darraj and her mighty story May You Wake Up to a Homeland.

Darraj tells us that she started with an image, an old man in his kitchen "looking at this bizarre package of frozen food". That and the thought of him sitting there "surrounded by his children and almost none of them actually can sympathise with him" was enough to set her on her way.

May You Wake Up to a Homeland is the first piece of fiction Darraj has been able to write since the Israeli invasion began last year.

"The first six months I think I was just in shock," she says, "and I couldn't believe it was still going on. But now it's been ten months."

After ten months, she explains, it's time for it to "seep into the creative work".

"Everything is hard," she continues, but "witnessing what's happening is the least we can do."

Every writer from a marginalised community feels the burden to represent that community, Darraj says, but she's not so sure it's a burden any more.

"I'm just trying to portray the experiences of Palestinians in a way that's authentic, because the media seems unable to get it right."

And while fiction isn't journalism, it can do something "really remarkable", she adds. "It asks you to pretend you are living someone else's life for a little while. And you do it. You all obey the author, don't you?"

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