Reading Group on Le Palais des deux collines by Karim Kattan

This reading group is dedicated to Le Palais des deux collines (The Palace on the Higher Hill) by Karim Kattan, winner of the 2021 Prix des Cinq Continents de la Francophonie. Please note that the author won’t be present in person.

Faysal receives a mysterious letter about the death of an aunt he can’t remember. Leaving his lover and his life in Europe behind, he returns to the village of his birth in Palestine and to his family’s extraordinary, deserted house, the palace on the higher hill.

With a backdrop of violence and the permanent threat from settlers, Faysal wanders the once-lavish rooms as characters from the past return to shed light on his family story and on the story of his people.