Susan Muaddi Darraj’s short story collection about the inhabitants of a Palestinian West Bank village, Tel al-Hilou, spans generations and continents to explore ideas of memory, belonging, connection, and, ultimately, the deepest and richest meaning of home. A Curious Land gives voice to the experiences of Palestinians in the last century. American Library Association BOOKLIST: This year’s Grace Paley Award, aka the AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs) Award, completely overcomes the effete image that sometimes demeans it. Darraj writes traditional, tragic love stories set among Orthodox Palestinians during periods of historical unrest, for example, 1916, 1936, 1966, 1978, 1988, 1990, 1994, 1996, and 1998. Therefore, she charts the exit of the British and rise of the Israelis, and the Palestinians are on the bloody end of the stick, but Darraj keeps history in the background and instead portrays ordinary people in the impoverished village of Tel al-Hilou. In “Rocky Soil,” sweethearts are torn apart when a family woos an American visitor with their daughter, Eveline; the boy left behind, Emad, internalizes his jilting and becomes a miserly workaholic, holding several jobs, winning a degree in economics. Then Eveline, divorced, broken, and with a little daughter in tow, returns. Equally moving is “The Well,” about the middle daughter of three, Amira, who disdains the usual, vital path of marriage, apprenticing herself to a wise nun. She intends to become a nun herself, but when her aunt dies in childbirth, leaving her poor uncle with five children to care for, Amira realizes what God intends for her. A superb collection and a perfect selection for public libraries.— John Mort