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Ein Hood
The Abulheja family, which is the family we follow through the novel, is forced to move from their family home Ein Hood to a refugee camp in Jenin. This is where most of the book takes place -
The day Ismael is taken
In September ,1948 Israeli soldiers attack the refugee camp where the Abulheja family lives. During the attack one of the soldiers, named Moshe, captures Dahlia Abulheja's son, Ismael and brings him back to his own wife. Ismael is raised with an Israeli family, and learns to view the arabs and the world from an Israeli point of view. -
Amal is born
Amal is the character we follow most though the book, and has a great significance to the story. When she is born her mother finds a new spirit after the loss of her son Ismael. -
Yousef leaves
Amal is shot in an uprising. She is crying out for her brother, Yousef. her best friend Huda comes to give her a letter from him. Yousef has left and Amal feels truly alone. -
The orphanage
Amal leaves for Jerusalem to go to a school which is also an orphanage. She lives here for four years. She meets several new friends here one of them is Muna Jalayta. Amal's memories from these years were in total very happy. -
Dalia dies
Dalia, Amal's mother dies. Amal found her in her bed faded away. She cries not over Dalia's death, but over the loss of her mother many years ago. Amal loved her mother but she had slowly faded away trough the years. -
America
Amal moves to America to study at an university, she is given a scholarship and leaves right away. Here she takes the name Amy and tries to fit in. She describes her name as anonymous and she feels like a foreigner and that she does not fit in. She belongs to Palestine and Palestine is her anchor in the world. -
Amal travels to Beirut
in 1978 Yousef, Amal's older brother calls her after many years. Yousef and Fatima are expecting a child. Amal travels to Beirut when she has finished her master degree, to visit her family and to live with them. This is where she meets Majid. -
The wedding
Majid has proposed to Amal and she said yes. They fall deeply in love. Before the wedding day Amal is prepped the way she has seen brides being prepped for weddings before, she is well taken care of. The day is described with pure joy and love. Amal is finally truly happy. -
The war
The Israel-Palestina war starts getting worse, Amal who is pregnant decides to move back to Philadelphia. Majid was to follow shortly, but he had to stay and help the Palestine in the hospital. It is here the turning point comes. Both Fatima and her children, Majid and Yousef is killed in the war. Amal gives birth to a child, Sara who does no longer have a father. -
Sara is born
Amal and Majid is blessed with a child, but when Majid tries to leave from Beirut to be with Amal and their baby his apartment is bombed and Majid falls with it. Amal is crushed and not even the birth of Sara can heal her broken heart. she notices that she is becoming more and more like her mother, Dalia. Cold and emotionless. -
Pennsylvania
1983-2001
Amal and Sara lives on in Pennsylvania. Amal goes back to be Amy, the invisible. Sara grows up and her mother becomes more and more distant. Amal, like her mother is loving her child from the sideline. Unlike the rest of the book there is little infomation and time goes fast during these 19 years. -
Meeting David
Amal reives a phonemail from a stranger, an Israeli. They start talking. His name is David Avaram, her long lost brother Ismael. Two days later they meet at Amal's house. They start talking and David learns about his real family and the terrors they have faced, Amal learns about David's family and his upbringing. Despite the fact that they are strangers they feel bond of brother and sister. Amal is happy. -
Jerusalem
Amal, Sara, David and his son Jacob travels to Jerusalem to re-visit their roots. Here Amal meets a dear friend of her father, Ari Perlstein. He gives them more information about their father and their history. Later they travel to Jenin, where Amal meets her old friend Huda. They reminisce over the past and Sara is an eager listener. Huda also shares all the terror which has been going on in Jenin since she left. -
Amal dies
Amal, Sara and Huda are talking when Huda's son comes running to them telling them "the Jews are coming". After this they are trapped in Huda's home for nine days, while war vessels and bullets are raining outside. One day Amal hears and ambulance outside and she runs out to check. It is not an ambulance, but a tank with a solider on top pointing his gun at her face. Sara comes running out to look for her mother. That is when Amal throughs herself over Sara and is shot. She dies. -
SARA
The time after Amal's death Sara stays in Jenin for a while to help the inhabitants with the restoring and recovery after the Israeli raided their homes and killed their loved ones. She mourns her mother and starts a website where she writes to her mother so the world can see.
