Isḥāq Mūsà al-Ḥusaynī, Memorie di una gallina (Muḏakkirāt daǧāǧah) (romanzo palestinese)

Palestinian novel originally published in Arabic in Cairo in 1943. Ishaq Musa al-Husayni wrote the text in Jerusalem in 1940, i.e. when Palestine was under British mandate and World War II was raging. The palestinian author felt distressed by the tragedies that where taking place both in his homeland and all over the globe.. In this modern diary-form fable, a wise hen remembers what happens to her after she is taken from the countryside, where she was born and grew up, to a new home in the city. This passage from a simple free life in the midths of nature to the more sofisticated urban life is the first of a series of crisis she faces. She describes various kinds of conflicts - familial, generational, social and international - and of migrations. This allegorical tale has been interpretated in very different ways: as an exposition of philosophical and existential reflections in artistic form or as an allegory of the plight of Palestinians threatened in their own land by Zionism supported by the British mandatory regime. The text is generally appreciated on the aesthetic level and continues to fascinate especially as a vehicle of a humanist message.