They Fell Like Stars from the Sky & Other Stories - Sheikha Helawy - ★★★.¼

AUTHOR: Sheikha Helawy

TRANSLATOR: Nancy Roberts

GENRE: Anthology.

RATING: 3.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: An OwnVoices anthology by a Bedouin Palestinian woman writer, focusing on female experiences in that culture. Enjoyed the setting more than the stories, though there are some gems herein.

The translator’s preface at the start provides a nice foundation to our experience of this anthology, first published in Arabic in 2015. It introduces the author’s background and her writing style. Author Sheikha Helawy grew up in a Palestinian Bedouin village named Shail El E'rj, which was forcibly displaced by the Israeli occupation in the 1990s. She uses her early memories and her experiences after losing her home to pen stories about women such as her.

This collection of eighteen stories focusses on the female Bedouin voice, offering us myriad women who are trying to thwart outdated patriarchal and social practices to whatever little extent they can. Not all of their wins are grand, but in such situations, even tiny victories matter.

The author’s writing is quite lyrical, and her OwnVoices experience of the Bedouin thinking and culture is reflected in every single story. Despite the political potential of the setting, the author doesn’t diverge into statements or opinions about the Israel-Palestine conflict, but sticks to her chosen theme of regular women trying to live regular lives.

Despite what you might assume, this isn’t a book about weak women suppressed by a restrictive culture but of resilient women indulging in little rebellions. Most of the tales are dramatic in style, which serves the content well. The protagonists range from young girls to old women, thereby bringing a wonderfully varied perspective to each story. The characters show a tenacity of spirit that allows us to root for them.

That said, my experience of the stories was very mixed. Some of the stories feel a bit unstructured, while others were too short to make an impact. At least half of the stories would have benefited with a little more substance at the end. While we do get a glimpse of the Bedouin culture, it is more in tiny snapshots than a panoramic view.

The blurb mentions “beautiful illustrations throughout”, but these aren’t a part of the stories themselves. Rather, there is a B&W line art illustration on the page containing the story’s title, with the sketch befitting that story.

As always, I rated the stories individually. Most of the stories fell within the 3-3.5 star range for me, with a few exceptions either way. My dissatisfaction mostly stems from the lack of a conclusive endpoint for the tales, and in some cases, from the lack of a sensible structure to the plot.

My favourite stories were:

💮 They Fell Like Stars from the Sky – Deservedly the title story, because it represents the thinking of the culture aptly. The discrimination between sons and daughters comes out strongly in this tale. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟

💮 Pink Dress – About a little girl’s experience with her new pink dress. My favourite story from this collection, probably because I connected the best with it. I could see teenaged me indulging in the same antics before getting into a dress that revealed my legs. 😉 - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫

💮 Ali – About a man’s search for ‘Ali’ during a funeral. Needed to read this twice to get the missing clues, but it was worth it. The ending is one of the best in this anthology. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫

💮 All the love I’ve known – The story begins with this line: “We don’t have girls who fall in love.” The rest goes on to prove why. Brilliant plot. Wanted more at the end. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟

💮 W-h-o-r-e – The title is self-explanatory about the content. A very confusing start to this story, but the ending ensured that it made it to this list. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟

💮 The Door to the Body – About a girl whose parents are considering enrolling her in a boarding school for some mysterious reason. This could have been one of the best in the collection had it been better structured. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟

To sum up, the USP of this anthology is its setting and the cultural background of the author. I have never ever read a book set around Bedouin experiences and written by a Bedouin writer, so these two factors were enough to satisfy me with this collection, though the stories themselves could have worked better for me.

Recommended not as a must-read anthology, but as a book about a culture you rarely get to experience in fiction.

3.25 stars, based on the average of my ratings for each story.

My thanks to Neem Tree Press and NetGalley for the DRC of “They Fell Like Stars From the Sky & Other Stories”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.