The Land of Sad Oranges

The Land of Sad Oranges is the second collection of stories written by the Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani. Originally published in 1962, the stories follow the perspective of a Palestinian as they and their family are dispossessed in the wake of the 1948 Palestine war.

Writer

Ghassan Kanafani was a famous Palestinian novelist, narrator and journalist of the twentieth century.
As a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine's political bureau, he focused on Palestinian emancipation. He and his family were forced to evacuate in 1948, and he spent time in Syria before settling in Lebanon, where he obtained Lebanese citizenship. In 1952, he graduated from high school in Damascus with a Syrian baccalaureate. In the same year, he enrolled in the college of Arab Literature at Damascus University, but dropped out at the end of the second year to join the Movement of Arab Nationalists, which George Habash joined upon meeting them in 1953. He worked in the primary education in Kuwait, then proceeded to Beirut in 1960 to work for al-Hurriya where he was in charge of the magazine's cultural department. From 1962-1967, he became the editor of Al Muharrir, followed by Al Anwar and its sister publication Assayad magazine. Kanafani joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in 1967 and, two years later, began editing its magazine Al Hadaf.
Kanafani was diagnosed with diabetes at a young age. He had two sons, Fayiz and Laila, with his wife Anni Høver. At 36 years old he was assassinated by the Israeli intelligence service Mossad on 8 July 1972 by detonating his car in the Hazmiyeh area near Beirut. Bassam Abu Sharif received Al Hadaf's editorial after Kanafani's death.

The twelve stories in the collection are:

Beyond Borders
The Horizon Behind the Gate
Forbidden Weapon
3 papers from Palestine :

Paper from Ramla
Paper from Bird
Paper from Gaza

Green and Red :

Fight
Death Schedule
Death to rival