Women in Translation Book Club: Trees for the Absentees (in-person)

Please note this meeting will be in person at the bookshop. There will be a mixture of in-person and online meetings throughout the year.

The Women In Translation reading group provides a free, friendly and gentle environment in which opinions are shared and new appreciations can be discovered. A place for curious minds and relaxed conversation hosted by poet and translator Annie Rutherford.

For June 2025 the book will meet online to discuss Trees for the Absentees by Ahlam Bsharat, translated by Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp and Sue Copeland.

Please support the bookshop & the book club by ordering your books through Lighthouse, Use the code LONG-VICTORIOUS-WIT for bookclubbers 10% off.

The book:

Translated from Arabic, Trees for the Absentees is a relatable coming-of-age tale of young love, meddling relatives, and heart-to-heart connections. Philistia is an ordinary university student with an extraordinary life. She has no idea when her father will be released from prison, and works part-time washing women’s bodies in the ancient Ottoman hammam in Nablus.

A midwife and corpse washer in her time, Philistia can't help but reminisce about her late Grandma Zahia, who taught her the ritual ablutions and the secrets of life and death. In the enthralling darkness of the hamman in occupied Palestine, Philistia falls in love and embarks on a magical journey through her country's history, one of loss and centuries of oppression. As trees are uprooted around her, Philistia searches for a place of refuge, a place where she can plant a memory for the ones she’s lost.