Books like Sharon and My Mother-in-Law by Suad Amiry

A sweeping family saga that charts the Abulheja lineage from exile in 1948 to the present, exploring the Palestinian experience through four generations amid the Israeli‑Palestinian conflict.

A brave and necessary immersion into the lives and struggles of a group of everyday Palestinians. In cities and small villages alike, men and women, young and old, a group of unforgettable characters share their lives with Ehrenreich and make their own case for resistance and resilience in the face of life under occupation. Ruled by the Israeli military, set upon and harassed constantly by Israeli settlers who admit unapologetically to wanting to drive them from the land, forced to negotiate an ever more elaborate and more suffocating series of fences, checkpoints and barriers that have sundered home from field, home from home, they are a population whose living conditions are unique, and indeed hard to imagine.

"There was a time when they lived in the village of Beit Daras, and the sun was hot and the earth was rich. There were ruins dating back to the Crusades; now their homes, too, are ruins, and they are refugees in the small strip of Gaza. And yet, when young Khaled dies, and moves on to the afterlife, it is back in Beit Daras that he finds himself. And from here he may slip through history, watching the continuing the story of his matriarchal family. He sees his grandmother, Nazmiyeh, once the prettiest, baddest girl in the town, the eternal ringleader. The other girls felt she hung the sky. He sees his mother, Alwan, who loves quietly and strongly, and who sustains the family through her embroidery work, stitching the stars and moon in place. He sees the great-aunts and cousins, and his sunny little sister, Rhet Shel. Finally, there is the branch of the family that moves to Kuwait, and then to America, where Nur, his mother's cousin, begins to lose herself. She will return to Mediterranean shores to find her past, and rediscover the ties of kinship that transcend distance and even death. Born of the violent, troubling history which continues to rage forth and claim its dead, The Blue Between Sky and Water is very much a novel of survival, and of the vivid, powerful women whose world they manage, with each day, to enlarge and to enliven"--Publisher.

Israel was born in battle. No sooner had independence been declared than seven Arab armies invaded the tiny, nascent state -- bent on its destruction. The tragedy of the Middle East had begun. This book tells the story of Israel's epic struggle to survive, through the vicissitudes, mistakes, triumphs and tragedies of four wars. It provides a blow-by-blow account of one of history's most bitter and enduring conflicts -- Arab versus Jew. As well as describing each campaign in absorbing and incisive fasion -- replete with desperate defensive actions against massive odds in isolated settlements, high-speed armored battles and breath-taking strategy, with the human elements of daring and self-sacrifice -- Herzog highlights the personal and political struggles that have determined the course of Middle East history. - Jacket flap.