Cactus Pear for My Beloved
Cactus Pear for My Beloved is a 2024 book by Palestinian-Australian author Samah Sabawi. The book recounts the life of Sabawi's father Abdul Karim Sabawi, a Palestinian poet whose family experienced the Nakba during his childhood and who was exiled from Gaza after the Six-Day War, eventually settling in Queensland.
Reception
The book was reviewed in The Conversation, The Saturday Paper, The Age, and the Journal of Holy Land and Palestine Studies. In her review for The Conversation, Michelle Hamadache praised Sabawi's ability to blend a deeply-researched historical account of her family history with fictionalised and dramatised elements. The book was shortlisted for the Stella Prize, where the judging panel wrote that the book had a "glorious sweeping scope and a light, elegant touch".Awards
| Year | Award | Category | Result | |
| 2025 | Stella Prize | |||
| 2025 | NSW Literary Awards | Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-fiction | ||
| 2025 | Prime Minister's Literary Award | Nonfiction |