By Mursi Saad El-Din What characterises the AUC Press is the diversity of its publications. Most, if not all, university presses concentrate on academic books, targeting the specialist reader. While the AUC press does publish academic books, mostly on subjects related to Egypt, these books are devoid of the dryness that is the hallmark of academia. This diversity reflects the wisdom and professionalism of its director Mark Linz, the fruit of his long history in the publishing industry. The manifestations are manifold: printing standards, title selection, promotional campaigns, partnerships with international commercial publishers and, last but not least, the distribution channels in both North America and Europe. I don't have to go through the long list of books, covering translations of Arabic literature, archaeology and Egyptology, gender and women's studies, history and biography, Islamic architecture and the arts, linguistic studies, politics, economics and social studies, religious studies, as well as travel literature and guidebooks. My current enthusiasm is borne of the pleasure found in the AUC Press's recent publication I have just finished reading. Palestinians Born in Exile: Diaspora and the Search of a Homeland by Juliane Hammer, assistant professor of religious studies at Elon University in North Carolina. I have read dozens of books on the Palestinian problem by both Arabs and non- Arabs, but as far as I know, this is the only published study of the Palestinian experience of exile. The book is a field research, reading like a narrative, with a style reminiscent of a popular novel or an epic. In the words of the preface, it "is based on research and fieldwork conducted between 1997 and 2000. It is a snapshot of a group of young returnees to Palestine who had grown up in different corners of the world as part of the Palestinian Diaspora". In fact the book is more than just a snapshot; it is an album of different and diverse young women and men who, encouraged by the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords, returned to the West Bank and Gaza. The author's comprehensive introduction acts as a guide to the contents of the book. In it she explains the various forms of migration, those she calls voluntary and others which are forced. There are economic, political and social forces affecting emigration and immigration; there are migration strategies, and the reasons behind the decision to migrate. Some people migrate as a flight from actual dangers, such as wars, genocide, political persecution, or famine. The case of the Palestinian refugees is different. They look back at more than a century of migration history and more than five decades of displacement. They claim their right to an independent state and insist on their national identity. And yet, for many Palestinians, having a homeland and feeling at home, are not part of the daily experience. Moving and living in places other than Palestine, has been an important feature of Palestinian life. The book is the story of different young Palestinians who have returned to Palestine: Kamilia, Basma, Ghada Majid, Marwan and Nimr, among others. In dealing with their cases the author emphasises the importance of oral history as their memories are shaped by parents and grandparents who were the main sources of their images of Palestine. The memories of the old generation entailed descriptions of childhood in Palestine, the beauty of places, especially the homes of the family before emigration. In the words of Hanadi, one of the respondents, "He [her father] said that life was simple... and of course it was different in the way people lived from agriculture. Not as it is now; they would plant and then they would harvest the wheat." In her conclusion, the author stresses the fact that "Palestine as a symbolic, imagined, and real homeland is central to Palestinian self- definitions. The image of a homeland to which to return from exile shaped the expectations of Palestinians in the Diaspora countries and was thus a defining factor for the possible return experience itself."
