Authors

Raja Shehadeh

Raja Shehadeh is Palestine’s leading writer. He is also a lawyer and the founder of the pioneering Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq. Shehadeh is the author of several acclaimed books including Strangers in the House and Occupation Diaries and winner of the 2008 Orwell Prize for Palestinian Walks. His latest book is Going Home: A Walk Through 50 Years of Occupation which won the Moore Prize in 2020 (Profile, 2019.) He has written for the New York Times, the New Yorker, Granta and other publications. He lives in Ramallah in Palestine.

Raja Shehadeh is represented at Jenny Brown Associates by Jenny. For all enquiries contact jenny@jennybrownassociates.com

Books by Raja

We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir

Profile Books, 2022 A subtle psychological portrait of the author’s relationship with his father during the twentieth-century battle for Palestinian human rights. Aziz Shehadeh was many things: lawyer, activist, and political detainee, he was also the father of bestselling author and activist Raja. In this new and searingly personal memoir, Raja Shehadeh unpicks the snags and complexities of their relationship. A vocal and fearless opponent, Aziz resists under the British mandatory period, then under Jordan, and, finally, under Israel. As a young man, Raja fails to recognise his father’s courage and, in turn, his father does not appreciate Raja’s own efforts in campaigning for Palestinian human rights. When Aziz is murdered in 1985, it changes Raja irrevocably. This is not only the story of the battle against the various oppressors of the Palestinians, but a moving portrait of a particular father and son relationship.