Palestine in Pieces expands upon and deepens the Lina Meruane’s reflections, which began in 2012 after a trip to Beit Jala that would form part of a paradoxical return home on behalf of others who were never able to do so. From that perhaps disavowed but politically committed standpoint, Meruane wrote the chronicle that opens this volume -”Becoming Palestine”- which she continued writing because, as she would later say, “no matter how much an end is put to it, the awful reality of the occupation has continued and must be told in order to avoid the disappearance of Palestinian history and its people.”

These pages were followed by a second part -”Becoming Others”- a biting, audacious reflection upon the language used to discuss the conflict, and a third, hitherto unpublished -”Faces on My Face”- in which she rethinks the individual and collective identity imprinted on faces and on languages, as well as the cultural contradictions which bodies bear.

 A Chilean writer and educator of Palestinian origin, Lina Meruane has been a professor at New York University since 2011, currently teaching at its Madrid campus. Her fictional works include the stories brought together in Las Infantas and Avidez, and five novels (Póstuma, Cercada, Fruta podrida, Sangre en el ojo and Sistema nervioso), which have been translated into twelve languages. Her non-fiction books include the essays Viajes virales (Viral Journeys) and Zona ciega (Blind Spot), as well as the personal  essay Palestina en pedazos (Palestine in Pieces, an expanded version of her prior work Volverse Palestina -Becoming Palestine-), the lyrical essay Palestina por ejemplo (Palestine, for Instance), and the diatribe Contra los hijos (Against Children). She has received awards including the Blue Metropolis (Canada, 2023), Cálamo (Spain, 2016), Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (Mexico, 2012), Anna Seghers (Germany, 2011) and writing grants from the Guggenheim Foundation (USA, 2004), the NEA (USA, 2010), the DAAD (Germany, 2017), and Casa Cien Años de Soledad (Mexico, 2021), as well as others.