So What

The highly acclaimed work of Palestinian poet Taha Muhammad Ali is driven by a storyteller's vivid imagination, disarming humor, and unflinching honesty. Born in rural Galilee, Muhammad Ali was left without a home when his village, Saffuriyya, was destroyed during the Arab-Israeli war of 1948. Out of this history of shared loss and continuation, he has created art of the first order. The author of four volumes of poetry in Arabic and a collection of short stories, Taha Muhammad Ali has supported himself and his family for many years selling souvenirs from his shop near Nazareth's Church of the Annunciation. So What: New & Selected Poems, 1971-2005 presents the best of Taha Muhammad Ali's poetry, in exquisite translations side by side with the Arabic, and includes an informative introduction that places his work in the broader context of modern Arabic literature. Book jacket.