Love and war: Yusuf Ya Mariam

About the writer :
Yami Ahmed is a Palestinian writer , was born on 1989 in Gaza. He is only 24 and he has written an amazing book "Youssef ya Mariem" which is his first novel (I'm stalking him , kidding). there is nothing much to say about him except he is a student of Media (according to his Facebook page) and he has a Licence in Languages and Translation.

لا أكتب 

ليقال هذا شاعر،

أو هذا كاتب ..

بل كي تذكريني

كلما على المرآة

تأملتي عنقك ..

وتخيلتي سنوح قبلاتي

كما قرأتِ في كتاباتي !

Another Romeo and Juliette, another impossible love story

This time our Romeo and Juliette are Gazanian (from Gaza) and their typical love story is veiled by Politics; a struggle between an armed organization and a corrupted government, a struggle that kills innocents and separates lovers!!

Yusuf Ya Mariam is Yami Ahmad’s first novella, and he is only 24, he describes in his story a forgotten phase of the Palestinian’s life; the life between Love and War. A forbidden love between a rich girl Mariam and a poor boy Yusuf and their war against norms, traditions, rules, chaos, pain and most importantly against their pride and families. They struggled against a sour reality to consume their love.

I really love the book and I love the fact that the female character is an active one: a fighter and a decision maker. She loves, fights, marries, and dumps. I love Yusuf as well; he is the figure of a passionate lover who is ready to do it all to be with his beloved one. They remind me of Romeo and Juliette.

As much as I love the book, I hate some parts of it because when the writer was talking about historical monuments in Gaza, "souk el-Zawiya" and Gaza seaport, I noticed that he fell in the trap of reporting and I was bored or that time when he was talking about stomach butterflies, it was kind of reading a definition from Oxford.



I read the book during two hours with various breaks; either to catch a breath or to search and hear a song mentioned in the book. During the two hours, I was overwhelmed with emotions of happiness and sadness and I really enjoyed them. Since I have finished reading the book, I have been recommending it to all the people I know, because it’s worth reading.