The Slightest Green: A Novel

by Sahar Mustafah

A moving multigenerational novel by the celebrated Palestinian American author of The Beauty of Your Face

In the middle of dinner one evening, Intisar Jaber receives a phone call that will upend her quiet life in Chicago: her father is dying and she must go to Palestine to pay her final respects. But Intisar hasn't seen or heard from Hafez for nearly two decades, ever since he abandoned her and her mother to join the resistance.

After a fateful mission, Hafez was thrown into the notorious Gahana Prison to serve a life sentence—permanently removed from her life. As soon as Intisar arrives in his village of Bayt al-Hawa, she discovers what it means to be a stranger in her ancestral land, the inheritance of loss, and the high price of freedom.

Meanwhile, Hafez’s mother Sundus battles to save the home that she built with her husband from thieving hands. Will Intisar, her estranged granddaughter, help Sundus fight to reclaim it? Can they close the gaping distance between them before it’s too late?

Powerfully etched in Sahar Mustafah’s honest and lyrical prose, The Slightest Green explores the place—and people—we call home and how far we will go to reach them.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Fiction, Novels

248 pages, Hardcover

First published November 11, 2025

About the author

Sahar Mustafah is the daughter of Palestinian immigrants. Her short stories have been awarded the Guild Literary Complex Prize for fiction, a Distinguished Story honor from Best American Short Stories, and three Pushcart Prize nominations, among other honors. She writes and teaches outside of Chicago.

Reviews

[Zainab Bint Younus · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book took me longer to complete than it should have, but only because it is so heart-achingly powerful.

Intisar Jaber hasn't seen her father Hafez in years - not since he left her and her mother in Chicago to return to Palestine and join the resistance. A phone call tells Intisar that he is dying, and when she lands in their family village, she discovers that she is embroiled in a battle to protect her grandmother's home from thieves.

Switching between Hafez's perspective in prison, and Intisar's as she searches for the meaning of belonging in Palestine, this book is both intimate and devastating. Scenes of Zio violence and oppression aren't just snapshots on a news piece; they are deeply personal and painfully close.

This needs to be on everyone's TBR for 2026. None of us can afford to turn away from Palestine, now more than ever.

[Rincey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book follows Intisar, who's parents are divorced and she hasn't talked to her father in quite some time after he returns to Palestine and gets arrested. However, he eventually gets released from prison due to his health declining from cancer and he wants to see Intisar at least one more time. Intisar finds out that her family also needs her to lay claim to their family land so that it doesn't get taken/purchased by an outsider but Intisar has complicated feelings towards this land she has little experience with.

A beautiful book exploring family - both blood and not, identity, community and more. I think anyone who is the child of immigrants with a loose connection to their home country will see a bit of themselves in this.

Watch my full review here: https://youtu.be/f9CjYJ06dos

[Natalie Coyne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not 100% sure that this is the correct book that I just read, seeing as the cover and page count are different, and the synopsis is not on here. But I tried searching by ISBN and it brought me here, and I know this is the correct author and this is the only book on the Goodreads author page matching the title! So I think it's right, and I'm hoping it is!! Anyway, though, this was fantastic. Like what I experienced when I read The Beauty of Your Face by the same author last year, I found myself barely being able to put this down. This was beautifully written, and I found myself really connecting with the characters.

I do think the whole serial rapist antagonist/twist was slightly unnecessary. I'm not sure that it added much to the story, but it didn't take away from my enjoyment too much. This already has two 5-star ratings on here, and I'm just adding to it another 5 stars because this was just fantastic!! Sahar Mustafah is an incredible writer and I look forward to (hopefully) reading more books by her in the future.

Definitely would recommend this to others. I really hope Goodreads gets all of the right information on the book page soon. Especially without a synopsis, and with a blander version of the cover (the cover on the book I have is absolutely stunning), I think people could get turned away/ignore this!

[Gin Eckert · Rating 5 out of 5]

“But Sundus only wanted to scream at the stone-faced soldier across from her, demanding to know if she, too, had a child. How could she treat another mother like this? Or had she been forced to fold away that existence each morning as she fastened the laces of her stiff combat boots and looped her weapon over her shoulder? Was her machine gun heavier than a newborn baby?”

This book was so beautiful and moving. I’m not sure what to call this genre of book, but it reminded me a lot of The Lion Women of Tehran, in which the characters are fictional but the political, cultural, and historical elements of the book are true to life and there are real stories just like these ones.

The Slightest Green tells the story of a Palestinian family from the perspectives of three generations: Sundus, the grandmother who is desperate to keep her land, Hafez, her son, who joined the resistance and was imprisoned, and Intisar, his daughter who was born in America and is rediscovering her history and connection to Palestine after her father’s death. I loved the alternating perspectives and timelines in which we got to know these characters. This is a story of grief and hope, family and home, and I’m glad to end the year with such an amazing book.

[Clarissa Bird · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully jumps between timelines & loved all the descriptions of food and the grapes on the family plot

[Elias Jahshan · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much love and care was obviously taken to craft a heartfelt story that celebrates the deep bonds Palestinians have with their land, and for their people. Adored this book.

[Bethany Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. It has been a long time since I read a physical book that I did not put down while refilling my water, walking through my home, and rearranging myself as I read. By the end, tears were streaming down my face. I’ve never been so grateful to attend a panel I didn’t even know about at a book festival. This novel will change lives.

Free Palestine.

[Regan Cast · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the twisting of time frames

[Hannah Saidiner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always love a book that only gets better as it goes on - I loved sitting with these characters, through the harshest points of their lives and their home to the emotional victories and moments of pure familial love

[Kirin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This adult multi generational novel weaves a narrative that will stay with the readers for the warmth and depth it explores of a fictional family that over the course of 248 pages becomes very real, and in many ways familiar through its personal focus. The book is deliberately slow as it glides through different members of the family, their backstories and different points in time. The prose highlights the plight of Palestinians but not in a didactic or call to action sort of way. The characters and their stories, and their trauma and dreams are very tied to Palestine and the occupation, but the focus on the individual and the ripple effects is what will linger. I do not know when the book was written, (it is published in November 2025) as I read a digital arc which had very minimal backmatter, but this book is set before the recent genocide and is all the more important for today's readers in pushing back against attempted erasure of Palestinian voice, culture, and history.

Intisar is a nurse in Chicago, the only daughter of divorced parents. She lives with her mother and has not seen her father in over 20 years. Not since he left the family to return to his home in Palestine, join the resistance and after a fateful mission is forced to serve a life sentence in Gahana Prison. When he is released to live his final days before he succumbs to cancer, Intisar heads overseas to see him one last time. Her grandmother Sundus additionally needs Intisar, the only heir, to fight for her to keep her land and home, a task that Intisar is not willing to pursue. As family history is shared, daily atrocities witnessed, Intisar starts to see herself differently, and considers if she could feel at home in her father's homeland.

Again I read an arc, but there are a few sentences that really have me hoping line edits will still occur before the final version. The book is adult, it has a Muslim drinking and serving alcohol, there is assault, sexual and physical mentioned, and yet I didn't feel like it was sensationalized, actually felt that the author was deliberately holding back to keep the story about the family and not the larger issues. Their is quite a bit of Islam, not from every character, but it is woven in and not an identity issue. Actually one line used frequently is my only real gripe with the book. "Pray to the Prophet," is regularly said by a few characters, so I though perhaps it is something unique to them, up until about the midpoint, where many characters start to say it and I don't like it. It makes it clear other places that Allah swt is One and who we pray to, it has the shahada in English and verses from the Quran, so I'm guessing it is a colloquialism perhaps, or maybe a poor translation, I honestly don't know, but it bothered me, so I am sharing.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book centers on a young Palestinian-American woman who is called home to Palestine as her father is dying. She is to inherit the land that her father and grandmother live on. The current story and extensive back stories (of her father, her grandmother and her great-grandfather) take place exclusively in Palestine where her grandmother tries to convey the importance of land in an occupied country. It speaks to Americans who are themselves immigrants and who may face the same conflicting emotions about their birth country versus their chosen country. But, the fact that the story takes place entirely in Palestine-- an area that most Americans have never been to-- renders it more a voice for Palestine than a voice for America.

The conflict between Israel and Palestine is well documented and this is a story that takes a side. The Israelis are the clear villains here. There is not one scene involving an Israeli character where they don't act cruel and vicious towards the Palestinian character. War makes animals out of us all and I would have appreciated a nod toward a more balanced approach.

I was slightly put off by the amount of Arabic that was untranslated in the novel. Early in the book it seemed I was running to Google Translate on every page and many of the terms, such as, dawali, had no direct translation. I realize the author was immersing the reader in the setting, but it was nonetheless frustrating for me.

The Slightest Green is a difficult novel. There is no happy ending, no redemption and no conclusion and for this reason readership may be limited.

[Shikha S. Lamba · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Slightest Green is the story of a Palestinian girl torn between her life in the US and the responsibilities that tie her to her ancestral home and family in Palestine. It’s an engrossing page-turner, filled with history, family dynamics, and characters we can relate to, even if we’re not Palestinian. I’m a fan of Sahar Mustafah’s wonderful writing since I first read her powerful book, The Beauty of Her Face. Sahar brings heartbreaking themes to life, always with the slightest bit of green in her stories (as in hope and possibility).

I love how different the three main characters are - Sundus (Mother and grandmother), Hafez (Father and son), and Intisar (Daughter and granddaughter) - One who is of the land, one who leaves only to return, and one who stands at the crossroads of two vastly different worlds. I could relate to many aspects of Intisar’s life, and I definitely understood her internal struggles. Her struggle with belonging, the pressure of family responsibility, and the pressure to feel a connection to a land she’s never truly been a part of. I still wonder how much of that was fair to her, and is the word fair really appropriate when it comes face-to-face with the traumatic circumstances of one’s loved ones? I found myself rooting for her the most, sometimes wanting to rescue her from everyone’s expectations, and praying she finds her place in the world, no matter where it is.

This multi-generational novel moves between timelines. While the broader themes are those of occupation and displacement, the novel focuses more on the individual stories of the main and supporting characters. If you’ve never read a Palestinian author, The Slightest Green is an excellent place to start. Either way, I highly recommend it to everyone for its writing, compelling storyline, and characters.

I personally think it's quite incredible for a Palestinian author to pen such a powerful novel, given the last 2+ years (not to mention the many years of painful history before). Bravo, Sahar! I hope this book finds its way to readers around the world. Needless to say, this was absolutely a 5 Star read for me.

[Elizabeth Trites · Rating 5 out of 5]

“What is a war against unarmed people?” Sahar Mustafah’s prose is at once beautiful and cutting, and I knew even from the beginning author’s note that this book would make me cry. Our main characters are Intisar and her grandmother Sundus, who she is visiting in Palestine after her father Hafez dies of cancer within days of being released from an Israeli prison. Both women’s lives have been marked by different types of grief; both have an inner strength that drives them to survive, find beauty, and take care of others in a place ravaged by colonization and violence. There is also so much love for Palestinian food and culture embedded throughout the book. The scenes with Israeli soldiers, both in and out of the prison, were especially hard to read—but important to the narrative and to American readers given our complicity in the Palestinian genocide happening.
“As she grew up, Sundus understood how such memories cleaved the human heart, how they could break the spirit. No words could ever fully communicate the immensity of such loss, and if they were somehow conceived and uttered out loud, the world would come crashing down on all of them. Her parents weren't pretending nothing had happened. To be silent was a matter of survival.“

[Reem Faruqi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I might have gasped when I got to the line with the title about The Slightest Green. When there's the slightest green, there's hope.

I love how Sahar Mustafa writes with unflinching honesty and tenderly captures even the hardest moments. This story had some excruciating moments, but I'm grateful Sahar Mustafa wrote about them. As an author, I imagine writing and imagining and living these experiences are heart-breaking. Notably, Sahar Mustafa has a way of transporting you right into the character's worlds. Their issues become yours.

I savored THE SLIGHTEST GREEN and the hope woven through the hardships, and the powerful voices of this Palestinian family.

I loved how this story ended (I don't want to give spoilers) Sitti Sundus's story is heartbreaking and heart-swelling and I loved the intergenerational stories of Sundus, Hafez, and Intisam and how seamlessly they were woven together.

[Semanur · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I was reading this book, I had many ideas for what I would want to write about it. Now that I’m done, I feel like nothing I could say would do it justice. So, I will try to make this review simple: I’ve always loved stories that span generations. This book was not only that, but also one of the most beautiful and important books I’ve ever read. It is lyrical, it is poignant, and it feels like home. I honestly can’t remember any other book that has made me cry so much. It will definitely sit at the top of my favorites and recommendations list for years to come.

Thank you, Sahar Mustafah, for sharing your heart and talent with the world🤍

“Eight-year-old Sundus had stood over the patch and declared it dead. The stems had turned brown.

But her mother had pointed out a single green one. You see there, my love? If it possesses the slightest green, there's hope.

And her mother was right. Before the summer was over,
white flowers began to sprout from the stem.”

[M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easily the best book I read in 2025. Mustafah is a beautiful writer. I was eagerly awaiting this book after reading The Beauty of Your Face. While I did enjoy that book more, this book quietly grew on me. It was a slow build but worth it. By the end, when you see everything the family, Sundus, and Hafez, especially, had gone through, you feel the emotion welling up in you. And you can see how Intisar is finally, as the book says, “of two worlds.”

Some of my favorite quotes:

“There is no right one,” Mama counters. “It’s the one who shows up and stays.” (42).

“Americans barely know geography,” she says.
“When you’re not in danger of losing something, you pay it little attention” (231).

“A sense of promise— quiet, but firm like a mother’s hand” (16).

“Love is naseeb, as they say. It is meant to be or not the rest of our lives are made up of choices” (232).

[Ann Goethals · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s enough to write a novel about this place (Palestine) in this time (2007). It’s enough to write beautifully and unflinchingly about incarceration and torture, about the loss of a father and a home land, about the precarious daily life of those who choose to stay and fight for their homeland.

But to manage to do so without either alienating the reader and or drowning them in self-righteous polemic, is quite an accomplishment.

This is at once a timely historical novel and a timeless Bildungsroman: a woman at the crossroads of her life; and a report from the front line of a grisly war where centuries old olive trees and 12 year old boys are destroyed for spite….while food and joy and courage and light buoy both character and reader .

Beautifully rendered and lightly instructive. Do not miss this one.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I could give this book more than 5 stars!!! This novel was beautifully written as it weaves between time, place, and narrator even within the same paragraph! BRILLIANT writing!!!

The story is heartbreaking, tragic, and beautiful as we get the meet so many characters as they deal with the constant conflicts in their homeland. Also, being witness to an outsider getting to know her roots and the internal struggles she experiences challenges the reader to consider what constitutes family and citizenship.

Despite it all, the love of family, community, and country remains. GORGEOUS WRITING!!!

[Sabah · Rating 5 out of 5]

oh my gosh. Another novel that Sahar beautifully wrote (her first is The Beauty of Your Face which is also 5/5). This book was so hard to put down and I was sad when I finished it because I wanted more. It is devastatingly heartbreaking and some parts are very intense but it’s the reality of how life is in Palestine and perfectly depicts the struggles, beauty and grief. The way Sahar writes is so beautiful, I can envision everything. The characters are lovable and you grief with every character throughout the book. Another amazing read by Sahar. I can’t wait to read what’s next.

[Safa · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE SLIGHTEST GREEN by Sahar Mustafah is captivating and transporting. Sahar's writing is impeccable and the characters are unforgettable. If you have not read a Palestinian novel before, let this be your first. You will be enriched and enlightened by the story and the beauty of Palestinian culture.

[Anika (Encyclopedia BritAnika) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. This is so good I don’t even know how to pull together my thoughts for my very wrecked self. A story of Palestine, of the loss and theft across generations, of a daughter in America far from her father imprisoned in Palestine for wanting freedom for his people. This was so real and so well done. Add this to your reading list.

[Kumasama · Rating 5 out of 5]

A masterful work that I highly recommend to anyone who loves stories about families, identity, and human bonds.

Add in Sahar Mustafah's gorgeous, deeply sensetive prose, and you have a very memorable journey ahead of you.

[Katie Hammond · Rating 5 out of 5]

Devastating and beautifully written!

[JC · Rating 3 out of 5]

[3.25/5]

[Omalleymeagan · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow this is sad but also gorgeous wow

[Olivia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful and captivating.

[Emily Bauer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful story through the eyes of an American born Palestinian and her experience going home.

[Carol Finger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written and thought provoking. Looking forward to reading her other book.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story. Drama filled. Heart-warming ending. Didn’t appreciate the frequently-used foreign words.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Slightest Green is a deeply emotional multigenerational novel following a young Palestinian, American nurse from Chicago, who returned to her ancestral home in the West Bank.