The Land is Holy

by noam keim

“I don’t think you ever move on from leaving a life behind.”

Flora and fauna populate the lyrical essays in The Land is Holy, where natural life is used to glean respite, healing, and stubborn lessons on survival.

Home has meant many different things to noam keim. Born a Queer Arab Jew in a settler family in Occupied Palestine, raised in the cobblestone streets of Mulhouse, France; a lifetime of escape across Europe, the foothills of Himalayas in Nepal, Bangkok, and then the makings of a chosen family on Occupied Lenape Land, known as Philadelphia. Through it all, the memory of one’s homes, the persistence of kin persecuted across timelines, their complicity in settler colonialism, and a dogged disavowal of inherited trauma. In this staunchly anti-zionist and abolitionist project, the author considers the wounds of diaspora ache by turning to the fierce primal inhabitants of their lineage for answers.

The stork in cyclical rotation, the bitter shiba, the prickly sweet Sabra, the blooming Lindens form larger-than-life metaphors in these essays. Surviving through violent crises and cruel political turns of hand, they are the salve to a world that can be possible with nurture. Keim writes, “I want to believe that we carry, in our bodies and bones and blood, the particles of the leaves and flowers that saw our lineages past. Kin.” And in turn they urge us to find kinship with the world that wants us alive and buoyant.

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, Queer, Poetry, Memoir, Jewish, LGBT

180 pages, Paperback

First published May 28, 2024

Reviews

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5 — BEAUTIFUL essays. Favorite thing I’ve read in a while. Botany and zoology weave into abolitionist dreams and childhood wounds and queerness and the sorrows and joys of migration, including grappling with being born in the Zionist state, a fact about noam keim that does not at all align with their resistant existence. Purchasing this book gives money to Palestine, by the way!

[Nina Zhao · Rating 4 out of 5]

i really do love and resonate with a lot of what this book and this person is about. i was impressed by so much about this person when i met them, and this book lived up to that. they obviously have such unique experiences and perspectives, and the wisdom they have about themself is so inspiring and came through in the pages. i found so many fantastic reminders for my own life here. at some points (moreso in the beginning i think) i did get lost in all of the spiritual stuff and it felt a bit rambly, but i think that could very much have been my fault, and overall i loved the spirituality of the book. 4.5

thank you Joe for connecting me to this person and this book!!

[sophia · Rating 5 out of 5]

what a joy to be able to read something so rich

I don’t understand how hope reckons with terror, but it’s beautiful to witness - this book touches on so many things.

Still reckoning with it, will add more thoughts later

Added thoughts from a day of getting shat on by dairy cows:

I love how intimate the storytelling is. The portraits are so specific, I realize how fragmented writing can become when capturing someone’s life. The deconstruction and examining of community and free spaces is stunning. I would love to see more essays on the body and pleasure/sex but I realize the book is largely centered around land/space/community so not trying to complain.

I also love the their age! Which sounds silly to say but so inspired to put on so many hats in my lifetime

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you are trying to live more & more human, to love the land, to be free & share freedom beyond ownership & coercive control, and you aren't reading noam keim, what are you even doing?? the land is holy weaves memoir, plant lore, the mythic, and deep abolitionist politics to entice you towards liberation.

[Ada]

M'ha passat que alguns d'aquests assajos personals m'han agradat més que altres, sí, com sempre acostuma a passar en una col·lecció. Però és que dins de cada assaig hi havia parts que m'agradaven i altres que em tiraven molt enrere. Crec que té a veure, precisament, en aquesta fina línia que determina fins a quin punt un record d'infantesa, una vivència viscuda, l'explicació d'un somni, pot ser interessant de compartir (en forma d'assaig personal) o no. L'autori aconsegueix sovint mantenir-se sobre aquesta corda fluixa, però en alguns moments, també, crec que cau en l'anècdota personal que, no sé ben bé per què, m'ha molestat.

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant, beautiful, generous collection that should be required reading in this time of stacking apocalypses.

[chloe · Rating 5 out of 5]

thought provoking, heartbreaking, urgent, and wildly tender.

getting all my friends copies!! can't recommend it enough!

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are lots of topics at play in this short collection of essays. It provides such a refreshing and unique perspective on Jewish migration to occupied Palestine that doesn’t glaze over the narrative of Jewish experience like many other pro-liberation Palestinian-focused texts do. Share this book with your plant-loving friends, your Jewish friends, and your Arab friends!

[bigguccireads · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot stress how incredible and thoughtful this book is. Keim is an amazing writer and I hope they write more books. If you are anti-Zionism, anti-settler colonialism, and anti-capitalism… this is the collection of essays for you

[Meher · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Full disclosure: I edited this incredible debut.) Five reads later, it still successfully moves me with its ambition, heart, and searing political rigor.

[Joe Maffa · Rating 4 out of 5]

lyrical and profound, but I think I needed to spend more time with it to truly appreciate it

[Dominique Francis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, topical, honest. Like poetry disguised as prose. Heart wrenching, real, vital.