Isabella Hammad Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Isabella Hammad is a published British-Palestinian author.

Isabella was honored as a “5 Under 35” pick by the National Book Foundation in 2019. Her book The Parisian, her debut novel, was named as one of the New York Times’ Notable Books of the Year in 2019 as well. The Guardian also noted the author was one of their writers of ‘exceptional first novels’ that year. She was part of the Granta Best of Young British Novelists list in 2023.

The author grew up in West London in Acton. Her father was Palestinian but had lived in Lebanon prior to England. Isabella attended the University of Oxford, where she went on to study English. She then attended Harvard University, where she took on a literature fellowship. She then attended New York University and came out of it with an MFA in creative writing.

These days, the author divides her time up between New York, Paris, and London.

The second book released from Isabella Hammad was Enter Ghost. The 2023 novel is the story of Palestine, which includes different questions all about belonging, how people form their identity, and more. The book was received well and made the shortlist for a 2024 Encore Award from the Royal Society of Literature, going on to win the award.

Hammad was the recipient of a Lannan Foundation Literary Fellowship in 2020. In 2023, she was named one of the Best of Young British Novelists by Granta on their list, which has been put together every decade ever since 1983.

The author has also had the good fortune of getting many more writing opportunities in the forms of fellowships. She was the recipient of a Gerald Freund Fellowship from MacDowell and New York University chose her for an Axinn Foundation Fellowship.

Hammad has also spoken at the Palestine Writes Literature Festival. She also spoke at Columbia University in 2023, delivering an Edward Said Memorial Lecture that came with the title of ‘Recognizing The Stranger’. Isabella was also selected to be a Cullman Center Fellow for the performing arts for 2024-2025 by the New York Public Library.

The Parisian is the first fictional novel to come out from Isabella Hammad. If you have been looking for a new story to check out, then you may enjoy this historical fiction tale.

The time is during the first World War, which is destroying families, relationships, and couples at a rapid pace. In the midst of all of this chaos, a young Palestinian man makes his way out into the world with the intention of finding himself.

His name is Midhat Kamal, and he’s going all over the world which has become very unsettled and divided. He goes everywhere from the Middle East, where the politics always seem to be shifting, to hanging with friends in Montpelier, to Paris, where things seem more in flux than ever.

What he finds out is that something is the same all over the world. Things are fragile everywhere, and you cannot rely on the things that you care about to last forever. True love ends up being transformed into loss. Friends are turning into enemies. Everyone wants to have place where they can belong and feel safe.

The author is able to move through all of the politics and tragedies of a period of time where much is being turned upside down. The Palestinians want independence from the British mandate, the economies are changing, and the second World War is coming upon the populace, even if they do not know it yet.

Set in the middle of a conflict taking place all over the world, Hammad manages to select out a single strand out of this tapestry and follow one man on his unique journey. Get a copy of this book to follow along for yourself!

Enter Ghost is the second fictional novel from Isabella Hammad. This book was released in 2024 and has received high reviews and is the latest story to check out from an author who has won the Plimpton Prize Award, the Betty Trask Award, and the Sue Kaufman Award.

This is the story of a woman named Sonia, who is an actress. She goes back to Palestine and soon finds a production that she can join, being assigned a role in Hamlet in the West Bank. She has been away for so long– will it be the same place that she remembers?

Main character Sonia Nasir is an actress who has been away from the homeland of her family for years. She has been through a terrible love affair gone wrong, and is trying to pick up the pieces.

Sonia comes back to Haifa so that she can visit Haneen, her older sister. This is the first time that she has been back since her grandparents passed away and since the second intifada. She was staying in the city of London so that she could pursue her acting career and tend to her marriage, all while her sister developed her own life and career, teaching at the university in Tel Aviv and commuting to make the classes.

Now her marriage is over and she’s going back to Palestine, where she finds that she is reminded of her old relationship with Palestine and witnesses the new one that she is forming. Upon getting there, she makes the decision to stay with her sister Haneen.

There she encounters Marjam, a woman who is honest and charismatic. The director works in town and soon ends up recruiting her for the West Bank Hamlet production. She comes on board and begins rehearsing the lines of her character in classical Arabic. She is quickly spending much less time in Haifa and working in Ramallah.

Sonia is also joined by a group of dedicated mall actors who hail from all over Palestine. Each of them wants to bring Shakespeare to this audience, and the opening night is coming up. The troupe has their work cut out for them.

Can the actors overcome all of their obstacles and bring the theater and the artistry that they so value to the people? Read the fascinating novel Enter Ghost to find out!