Finalist for the 2022 National Book Critics Circle Award in TranslationTranslated from the Arabic and introduced by Fady Joudah You Can Be the Last Leaf draws on two decades of work to present the transcendent and timely US debut of Palestinian poet Maya Abu AlHayyatamp10amp10Art Garlic Taxis Sleepy soldiers at checkpoints The smell of trash on a winter street before quotour wild rosebush neglected by the gate bloomsquot Lovers who dont return the possibility that you yourself might not return Making beds Cleaning up vomit Reading recipes In You Can Be the Last Leaf these are the ordinary and profoundsometimes tragic sometimes dreamy sometimes almost frivolousamp8212moments of life under Israeli occupationamp10amp10Here private and public domains are inseparable Desire loss and violence permeate the walls of the home the borders of the mind And yet that mind is full of its own fierce and funny voice its own preoccupations and strangenesses amp8220It matters to meamp8221 writes Abu AlHayyat amp8220what youamp8217re thinking now as you coerce your kids to sleep in the middle of shellingamp8221 whether itamp8217s coming up with amp8220plans to solve the worldamp8217s...
