Ramona Wadi Reviews: The Last Earth. A Palestinian Story
'The Last Earth'. (Painting: Ramona Wadi)
To impart narratives of displacement, it is important to listen to the echoes of such trajectories. Ramzy Baroud’s latest book, The Last Earth: a Palestinian story, propels this dimension immediately to the fore. The reader takes a step back to listen, imagine and realise the immense contradictions, where life is in a constant struggle with death in order to survive, and where displacement has forced Palestinians to keep “moving in one straight line” while their implosion as a result of colonial violence took them elsewhere.
All too often, Palestine is overshadowed by impositions which have reduced devastatingly the spaces for Palestinian voices not only to claim their narratives, but also to disseminate them, as is their natural right. Baroud has created that space, so much so that reading this book requires an amount of unlearning, of shedding the facades which claim to represent Palestine while hiding its testimony.
RT PalestineChron "‘The Last #Earth’: Flashing for the #Refugees on the Unarmed Road of Flight https://t.co/2zFLCVFa5a via PalestineChron pic.twitter.com/f7RBYFBr1w"
— Richard Hardigan (@RichardHardigan) March 25, 2018
The Last Earth… is poignant on many levels. Based upon in-depth interviews with Palestinians, it paints the history which is regularly concealed. There is not one single page which does not elicit profound questions about Palestine and one’s relationship to Palestine, through ancestral ties to the land, or affinity. Baroud exposes the land and the people, vulnerable and resilient, for an understanding of what Palestine is, and who Palestinians are, enticing the reader into a deeper relationship with memory, and prompting many questions as stories unravel and people flow into other people’s recollections.
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