Mourid Barghouti is from a town in Palestine called Ramallah. He travels to Cairo, the capital of Egypt, to go to a university. While he is away from his home country, there is a war, The Six-Day War in 1967. The story begins when Mourid is trying to get into Palestine again, but is denied entry. He has denied seeing his family. He is denied his own life, in a way.
Mourid spends an unbelievable 30 years in exile. He travels around the world, from city to city, never feeling like he is at home in any of them. He struggles with knowing who he is, never getting any closer to the answer. After The Oslo accord, Mourid was able to return home, but it is now a broken home.
Eventually, Mourid gets to his hometown and sees it ruined, which is of course hard to witness. This is a book about human emotions and war--people being ripped from their families and getting home just to see what is no longer there.
