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Seven Heavens Away
A Palestinian teenager finds his footing amid escalating violence across Jerusalem in this taut debut novel.
The sudden death of Hassan at the hands of an Israeli shakes his friends Aziz and Mustafa to their core, leaving them grappling with grief, guilt, and an uncertain future. Drawn into the orbit of Hassan’s father—a respected community leader known for his charity work and fiery speeches—they struggle to find their place in a world that feels increasingly volatile.
Meanwhile, Aziz wrestles with his growing feelings for Dafna, a Jewish girl he works with in West Jerusalem. This angers Mustafa, who accuses Aziz of betraying Hassan’s memory. With violence escalating around them, Aziz’s mother searches for a way to secure his future, even if it means leaving behind the city he loves. But as events spiral beyond his control, Aziz is forced to confront painful truths about loss, survival, and what it means to find hope amid the ruins.
Seven Heavens Away is a gripping and moving coming-of-age story that delves into the complexities of identity, power, and the fight for freedom.
The sudden death of Hassan at the hands of an Israeli shakes his friends Aziz and Mustafa to their core, leaving them grappling with grief, guilt, and an uncertain future. Drawn into the orbit of Hassan’s father—a respected community leader known for his charity work and fiery speeches—they struggle to find their place in a world that feels increasingly volatile.
Meanwhile, Aziz wrestles with his growing feelings for Dafna, a Jewish girl he works with in West Jerusalem. This angers Mustafa, who accuses Aziz of betraying Hassan’s memory. With violence escalating around them, Aziz’s mother searches for a way to secure his future, even if it means leaving behind the city he loves. But as events spiral beyond his control, Aziz is forced to confront painful truths about loss, survival, and what it means to find hope amid the ruins.
Seven Heavens Away is a gripping and moving coming-of-age story that delves into the complexities of identity, power, and the fight for freedom.
328 pages, Paperback
First published February 3, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
February 25, 2026
I really enjoyed reading this debut novel even though it was at times devastating and heartbreaking. It starts off in Fall 2015 with a literal bang of violence and follows Aziz, a Palestinian teenager, living in Jerusalem who is dealing with the grief of losing his friend, coming of age in such a turbulent situation and navigating finding his place. I enjoyed the timeline and the evident push and pull Aziz experienced. He was struggling within many facets of his life and especially during those formative years. A great debut novel!
Thank you to House of Anansi for my free review copy!
Thank you to House of Anansi for my free review copy!
January 25, 2026
Seven Heavens Away is a book I admired more than I loved. The writing is beautiful and thoughtful, and it offered a lot of insight, I genuinely learned from it. At times, though, the story felt confusing and difficult to follow, which made it harder for me to fully connect. Still, the coming-of-age themes stood out, especially the quiet, complicated process of discovering who to love and what to believe. Even if it didn’t fully resonate with me, it’s a meaningful and well-crafted novel. Thank you to House of Anansi Press for the free copy!
February 15, 2026
I love reading books that transport me to a different time and place and introduce me to a way of life I’ve not known. This happened after reading Seven Heavens Away by Ashraf Zaghal. This is a coming of age story that follows Aziz, a 15 year old growing up in Jerusalem in 2015. He is navigating a lot in life: grief after losing his close friend, the awkwardness of understanding his feelings about females, tensions with his parents, confused on who to follow and take advice from and the ever present terror caused by regular violence in his country and neighborhood. The writing and descriptions in this book were well done and immersed me in Aziz’s life. This is one of my first book I’ve read from a Palestinian authors.
Thanks to @houseofanansi for an advance copy of this book.
Thanks to @houseofanansi for an advance copy of this book.
February 9, 2026
From my review in The Miramichi Reader:
In an essay in The New Yorker, the American writer Andrew Solomon wrote “writing things down makes them real; that it is nearly impossible to hate anyone whose story you know.” This sentiment is the motive behind the erasure of Palestinian narratives throughout the Western cultural sphere. Palestinian authors find themselves disinvited from literary festivals, the word “Palestine” is erased from museum exhibitions, Oscar-winning Palestinian films cannot find distribution in North America.
This cultural erasure, designed to further the imperial policies of our allies like the US, Israel and the UK, by dehumanizing the Palestinian people, makes books like Ashraf Zaghal’s debut novel Seven Heavens Away, feel that much more transgressive and revelatory. The novel is the story of Aziz Omar Aziz, a young Palestinian coming of age in occupied Palestine. Navigating life under an apartheid regime and the resulting social whirlpools and eddies challenges Aziz heart, his faith and his courage.
The novel is set in 2015-2016, a time when Israeli forces began restricting access to Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem. Aziz, a young man at odds with his father, witnesses, alongside his friend Mustafa, the murder of their friend Hassan at the hands of an Israeli soldier. Through this tragedy, we see how justice is not applied evenly in the Occupied Palestine, and Palestinians have no reason to expect that the law will protect them. After Hassan’s death, Aziz is adrift, joining a group started by Hassan’s father where members devote themselves to their faith and to Palestinian resistance.
The rift between Aziz and his father grows as Aziz becomes more devout and more committed to Palestinian liberation. He forgoes his school curriculum, reading instead the books the group suggests, books about the Mujahideen, for example. He also begins weight training, then is tasked by the group to spy on his neighbours to determine who might be collaborating with the Israeli military, including his free-spirited neighbour, Nuha, a woman whose Bohemian ways attract and repulse him.
Mustafa’s brother, Marwan, gets Aziz a job at a café in Jerusalem that caters to the Jewish residents. There he meets Dafna, an Israeli girl with whom he forms a closeness. She helps him learn Hebrew, he shows her parts of the old city where she usually wouldn’t fit in. Meanwhile, Mustafa is detained and held in Israeli custody, one of the thousands of Palestinians held in “administrative detention” at any given time.
Mustafa is finally released and more committed to the cause than ever. Aziz, however, no longer sees the situation in black and white terms. Abu-Hassan no longer seems so righteous, and his own father no longer seems so irredeemable. His relationship with Dafna grants him a new perspective.
This book could have been boiled down to a mere cliche, a Romeo and Juliette story between Aziz and Dafna. But the strength of this novel is its complexity, its Mille-feuille-layers of morality and relationships. It would be easy to tell this story in the black-and-white terms that initially influence Aziz’s worldview. But the book explores how Aziz lives in a pressure cooker environment, under military rule, with violent settlers forcing more and more Palestinians from their homes. But there’s also people like Abu-Hassan, who use the occupation to empower and enrich themselves, using the language of religion and resistance to recruit others into their service. We also get a sense of how living under oppressive forces made Aziz’s father what he is, and after realizing that, Aziz is able to pardon his shortcomings. Each character in this world has to navigate the various power structures, checkpoints and social stigmas.
Seven Heavens Away shows readers how a person can grow under a violently oppressive regime, either in opposition to it or in spite of it. They can dedicate their lives to fighting back against the forces that seek to steal their land, freedom and humanity, or they can resist by finding another way to live free and not be swallowed by hate. Seven Heavens Away is written in a clear, compelling style that reads very quickly but lingers on the brain for a long time after it’s finished.
In an essay in The New Yorker, the American writer Andrew Solomon wrote “writing things down makes them real; that it is nearly impossible to hate anyone whose story you know.” This sentiment is the motive behind the erasure of Palestinian narratives throughout the Western cultural sphere. Palestinian authors find themselves disinvited from literary festivals, the word “Palestine” is erased from museum exhibitions, Oscar-winning Palestinian films cannot find distribution in North America.
This cultural erasure, designed to further the imperial policies of our allies like the US, Israel and the UK, by dehumanizing the Palestinian people, makes books like Ashraf Zaghal’s debut novel Seven Heavens Away, feel that much more transgressive and revelatory. The novel is the story of Aziz Omar Aziz, a young Palestinian coming of age in occupied Palestine. Navigating life under an apartheid regime and the resulting social whirlpools and eddies challenges Aziz heart, his faith and his courage.
The novel is set in 2015-2016, a time when Israeli forces began restricting access to Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem. Aziz, a young man at odds with his father, witnesses, alongside his friend Mustafa, the murder of their friend Hassan at the hands of an Israeli soldier. Through this tragedy, we see how justice is not applied evenly in the Occupied Palestine, and Palestinians have no reason to expect that the law will protect them. After Hassan’s death, Aziz is adrift, joining a group started by Hassan’s father where members devote themselves to their faith and to Palestinian resistance.
The rift between Aziz and his father grows as Aziz becomes more devout and more committed to Palestinian liberation. He forgoes his school curriculum, reading instead the books the group suggests, books about the Mujahideen, for example. He also begins weight training, then is tasked by the group to spy on his neighbours to determine who might be collaborating with the Israeli military, including his free-spirited neighbour, Nuha, a woman whose Bohemian ways attract and repulse him.
Mustafa’s brother, Marwan, gets Aziz a job at a café in Jerusalem that caters to the Jewish residents. There he meets Dafna, an Israeli girl with whom he forms a closeness. She helps him learn Hebrew, he shows her parts of the old city where she usually wouldn’t fit in. Meanwhile, Mustafa is detained and held in Israeli custody, one of the thousands of Palestinians held in “administrative detention” at any given time.
Mustafa is finally released and more committed to the cause than ever. Aziz, however, no longer sees the situation in black and white terms. Abu-Hassan no longer seems so righteous, and his own father no longer seems so irredeemable. His relationship with Dafna grants him a new perspective.
This book could have been boiled down to a mere cliche, a Romeo and Juliette story between Aziz and Dafna. But the strength of this novel is its complexity, its Mille-feuille-layers of morality and relationships. It would be easy to tell this story in the black-and-white terms that initially influence Aziz’s worldview. But the book explores how Aziz lives in a pressure cooker environment, under military rule, with violent settlers forcing more and more Palestinians from their homes. But there’s also people like Abu-Hassan, who use the occupation to empower and enrich themselves, using the language of religion and resistance to recruit others into their service. We also get a sense of how living under oppressive forces made Aziz’s father what he is, and after realizing that, Aziz is able to pardon his shortcomings. Each character in this world has to navigate the various power structures, checkpoints and social stigmas.
Seven Heavens Away shows readers how a person can grow under a violently oppressive regime, either in opposition to it or in spite of it. They can dedicate their lives to fighting back against the forces that seek to steal their land, freedom and humanity, or they can resist by finding another way to live free and not be swallowed by hate. Seven Heavens Away is written in a clear, compelling style that reads very quickly but lingers on the brain for a long time after it’s finished.
March 9, 2026
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC! This book was published in the US by House of Anansi Press on February 3rd, 2026.
Ashraf Zaghal’s Seven Heavens Away begins with a boy and his friends trying to avoid surveillance cameras near Jerusalem’s Jaffa Gate. That small act sets the tone for the novel. In Aziz’s world, even ordinary movements carry risk, and adolescence unfolds under watchful systems of control.
The story turns when Aziz’s friend Hassan is shot by an Israeli civilian and later framed in the news as a terrorist. Grief ripples outward through the boys’ lives. Hassan’s father names his son a martyr and begins gathering young men around him for prayer, study, and ideological guidance. At the same time, Aziz’s friend Mustafa drifts toward a more immediate form of resistance. Between these two influences, Aziz searches for meaning. Faith, anger, friendship, and survival all compete to define what kind of future he might claim.
Zaghal writes in a conversational voice that often feels like reading Aziz’s daily diary. The prose moves easily between dialogue and interior reflection. Moments of blunt political anger sit beside passages of spiritual longing. The result is a narrative rhythm that captures how a teenager tries to think through events that exceed him. Small observations carry weight: the look strangers give Palestinian boys in the street, the presence of cameras scattered across the city, the uneasy quiet of a neighborhood after violence.
What struck me most was how clearly the novel traces the pressures surrounding Palestinian children. School lessons feel irrelevant when classmates are arrested or killed. Religious leaders offer belonging and purpose. Friends promise action. Parents search for escape routes. Each force pulls Aziz in a different direction, and none of them arrive as simple villains or heroes.
At times the novel’s scope feels expansive enough that the pacing loosens. Yet that breadth also reflects the layered realities shaping Aziz’s life. Occupation, family expectation, religion, masculinity, and grief all arrive at once. For readers unfamiliar with daily life in Jerusalem and the West Bank, the book offers a textured window into those tensions through the intimate lens of adolescence.
In the end, Seven Heavens Away reads as both political and deeply personal. It asks what happens to a young person’s sense of self when the world insists on turning grief into ideology. Aziz stands at the center of that question, trying to decide whether his future will be defined by martyrdom, resistance, or the fragile possibility of another life.
📖 Read this if you love: Coming-of-age stories shaped by political reality and moral uncertainty, novels that center Palestinian life and youth under occupation, reflective literary fiction that explores grief, faith, and the pressures of resistance, stories about radicalization, surveillance, and the psychology of living inside conflict, or narratives that examine how political violence shapes adolescence and belonging.
🔑 Key Themes: Youth Under Occupation, Grief and Martyrdom, Radicalization and Ideological Influence, Faith and Political Identity, Surveillance and State Power.
Content / Trigger Warnings: Gun Violence (minor), Racism (moderate), Vomit (minor), Child Death (moderate), Suicidality (minor), Blood (minor), Infidelity (minor), Police Violence (moderate), Colonization (severe), Zionism (severe).
Ashraf Zaghal’s Seven Heavens Away begins with a boy and his friends trying to avoid surveillance cameras near Jerusalem’s Jaffa Gate. That small act sets the tone for the novel. In Aziz’s world, even ordinary movements carry risk, and adolescence unfolds under watchful systems of control.
The story turns when Aziz’s friend Hassan is shot by an Israeli civilian and later framed in the news as a terrorist. Grief ripples outward through the boys’ lives. Hassan’s father names his son a martyr and begins gathering young men around him for prayer, study, and ideological guidance. At the same time, Aziz’s friend Mustafa drifts toward a more immediate form of resistance. Between these two influences, Aziz searches for meaning. Faith, anger, friendship, and survival all compete to define what kind of future he might claim.
Zaghal writes in a conversational voice that often feels like reading Aziz’s daily diary. The prose moves easily between dialogue and interior reflection. Moments of blunt political anger sit beside passages of spiritual longing. The result is a narrative rhythm that captures how a teenager tries to think through events that exceed him. Small observations carry weight: the look strangers give Palestinian boys in the street, the presence of cameras scattered across the city, the uneasy quiet of a neighborhood after violence.
What struck me most was how clearly the novel traces the pressures surrounding Palestinian children. School lessons feel irrelevant when classmates are arrested or killed. Religious leaders offer belonging and purpose. Friends promise action. Parents search for escape routes. Each force pulls Aziz in a different direction, and none of them arrive as simple villains or heroes.
At times the novel’s scope feels expansive enough that the pacing loosens. Yet that breadth also reflects the layered realities shaping Aziz’s life. Occupation, family expectation, religion, masculinity, and grief all arrive at once. For readers unfamiliar with daily life in Jerusalem and the West Bank, the book offers a textured window into those tensions through the intimate lens of adolescence.
In the end, Seven Heavens Away reads as both political and deeply personal. It asks what happens to a young person’s sense of self when the world insists on turning grief into ideology. Aziz stands at the center of that question, trying to decide whether his future will be defined by martyrdom, resistance, or the fragile possibility of another life.
📖 Read this if you love: Coming-of-age stories shaped by political reality and moral uncertainty, novels that center Palestinian life and youth under occupation, reflective literary fiction that explores grief, faith, and the pressures of resistance, stories about radicalization, surveillance, and the psychology of living inside conflict, or narratives that examine how political violence shapes adolescence and belonging.
🔑 Key Themes: Youth Under Occupation, Grief and Martyrdom, Radicalization and Ideological Influence, Faith and Political Identity, Surveillance and State Power.
Content / Trigger Warnings: Gun Violence (minor), Racism (moderate), Vomit (minor), Child Death (moderate), Suicidality (minor), Blood (minor), Infidelity (minor), Police Violence (moderate), Colonization (severe), Zionism (severe).
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Seven Heavens Away by Ashraf Zaghal
This is a compelling novel that follows Aziz, a 15 year old, living in Jerusalem amid escalating violence. The sudden, violent death of his friend at the hands of an Israeli, shakes him to his core leaving him grappling with grief, guilt and confusion.
Told from the perspective of a teenage boy coming of age under occupation, the novel offers a powerful examination of a life shaped by fear, loss and uncertainty. Aziz struggles to understand his beliefs, his family, and his community while navigating profound loneliness and a fractured sense of identity. His grief is complex and consuming, intertwined with a deep longing for connection and belonging as he tries to make sense of a world that feels increasingly hostile and incomprehensible.
The story thoughtfully examines the lure of retaliation, when anger and sorrow collide, showing how easily grief can be weaponized in the wrong hands. But also demonstrating the importance of thinking critically and to seek the truth amidst the propaganda. Zaghal also highlights the power of stories, our histories and human connection as a critical support during difficult times.
The novel’s portrayal of the struggle to form your identity while receiving contradictory messages about one’s history, worth and community is both profound and deeply moving. This novel offers a rare and important perspective, making it an unforgettable read.
This is a compelling novel that follows Aziz, a 15 year old, living in Jerusalem amid escalating violence. The sudden, violent death of his friend at the hands of an Israeli, shakes him to his core leaving him grappling with grief, guilt and confusion.
Told from the perspective of a teenage boy coming of age under occupation, the novel offers a powerful examination of a life shaped by fear, loss and uncertainty. Aziz struggles to understand his beliefs, his family, and his community while navigating profound loneliness and a fractured sense of identity. His grief is complex and consuming, intertwined with a deep longing for connection and belonging as he tries to make sense of a world that feels increasingly hostile and incomprehensible.
The story thoughtfully examines the lure of retaliation, when anger and sorrow collide, showing how easily grief can be weaponized in the wrong hands. But also demonstrating the importance of thinking critically and to seek the truth amidst the propaganda. Zaghal also highlights the power of stories, our histories and human connection as a critical support during difficult times.
The novel’s portrayal of the struggle to form your identity while receiving contradictory messages about one’s history, worth and community is both profound and deeply moving. This novel offers a rare and important perspective, making it an unforgettable read.
May 8, 2026
I have known my entire life that books have the power to change the world. We had shelves full of them growing up, and as I started collecting my own, I’ve moved over twenty times with boxes of them. I know people who purge them, I know people who only borrow them, and I know people like me who hang on to too many.
The reason I hang on to them is because in finishing a book like SEVEN HEAVENS AWAY by Ashraf Zaghal, I know I will want to pick it up again. I will want to sit in the moment when Aziz is asked by his grandfather why he missed the olive harvest, most especially because it is the section Ashraf read in an interview, words that brought all the emotion I felt while reading the book.
When it feels that there isn’t much I can do as a collector of books, I know I must continue to read them and then share all the reasons you should too.
SEVEN HEAVENS AWAY is a reminder that people are not abstract figures on television screens, data disseminated with indifference, their deaths contained in scripts, casualties not victims, and teenaged boys are not tropes to be used in propagandist media.
Aziz is a boy struggling to survive in a world where the future holds fear, less hope, and because he cannot see a clear path forward he finds himself trapped by duelling passions: to love or to fight for what’s right. There is so much to love about this book, from its conversational tone to its depth of feeling, and I truly hope everyone reads it.
The reason I hang on to them is because in finishing a book like SEVEN HEAVENS AWAY by Ashraf Zaghal, I know I will want to pick it up again. I will want to sit in the moment when Aziz is asked by his grandfather why he missed the olive harvest, most especially because it is the section Ashraf read in an interview, words that brought all the emotion I felt while reading the book.
When it feels that there isn’t much I can do as a collector of books, I know I must continue to read them and then share all the reasons you should too.
SEVEN HEAVENS AWAY is a reminder that people are not abstract figures on television screens, data disseminated with indifference, their deaths contained in scripts, casualties not victims, and teenaged boys are not tropes to be used in propagandist media.
Aziz is a boy struggling to survive in a world where the future holds fear, less hope, and because he cannot see a clear path forward he finds himself trapped by duelling passions: to love or to fight for what’s right. There is so much to love about this book, from its conversational tone to its depth of feeling, and I truly hope everyone reads it.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Thanks to House of Anansi Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
An affecting and poignant story about a Palestinian teen. He’s 16 and trying to find his way and make sense of his world. The setting in 2016 is a bleak one; this is made all the more compelling especially knowing today’s violence and genocide at the hands of the IDF. Here the people’s lives are surveilled, movement on certain streets and neighborhoods is restricted, there’s a curfew, and there are checkpoints. The military/police are everywhere.
The tone of the book haunts me. I found it intimate and vulnerable. I saw through Aziz’s eyes. The scenes with his mother and his friends are particularly moving as they depict a people surviving, finding happiness, and doing everyday, mundane tasks. His father’s violence is difficult and, I believe, stems from the trauma of living under the oppressive Zionist state.
I’m not surprised to learn that Zaghal writes poetry. His writing has a certain musicality to it, bringing a certain pull and urgency to this story. I would read his other titles and am curious about his poetry collections.
One quote:
I could not bear my own gravity.
An affecting and poignant story about a Palestinian teen. He’s 16 and trying to find his way and make sense of his world. The setting in 2016 is a bleak one; this is made all the more compelling especially knowing today’s violence and genocide at the hands of the IDF. Here the people’s lives are surveilled, movement on certain streets and neighborhoods is restricted, there’s a curfew, and there are checkpoints. The military/police are everywhere.
The tone of the book haunts me. I found it intimate and vulnerable. I saw through Aziz’s eyes. The scenes with his mother and his friends are particularly moving as they depict a people surviving, finding happiness, and doing everyday, mundane tasks. His father’s violence is difficult and, I believe, stems from the trauma of living under the oppressive Zionist state.
I’m not surprised to learn that Zaghal writes poetry. His writing has a certain musicality to it, bringing a certain pull and urgency to this story. I would read his other titles and am curious about his poetry collections.
One quote:
I could not bear my own gravity.
Read
August 29, 2025
”our martyr’s blood is debt around our necks until the end of days.”
Um… DNF at 30%.
I really love how this captures what Jerusalem feels like. The writing is beautifully poetic, and the spiritual atmosphere - with its constant mentions of Allah ﷻ, prayer, dua, and even martyrdom - just feels sowarm and moving. It’s extremely rare to find English literature about Palestine that conveys this depth. I really appreciated the representation.
At the same time, there were moments that didn’t sit right with me. Some scenes felt oddly disjointed, as if there were gaps in the flow of the prose, and I couldn’t really quite put my finger on why? That disconnect ruined the experience for me, and there were a few other scenes that just bothered me? A lot?
I was genuinely excited for this one :(
Thank you Edelweiss and Anansi Press for granting me this early copy in exchange for my honest opinion.
Um… DNF at 30%.
I really love how this captures what Jerusalem feels like. The writing is beautifully poetic, and the spiritual atmosphere - with its constant mentions of Allah ﷻ, prayer, dua, and even martyrdom - just feels sowarm and moving. It’s extremely rare to find English literature about Palestine that conveys this depth. I really appreciated the representation.
At the same time, there were moments that didn’t sit right with me. Some scenes felt oddly disjointed, as if there were gaps in the flow of the prose, and I couldn’t really quite put my finger on why? That disconnect ruined the experience for me, and there were a few other scenes that just bothered me? A lot?
I was genuinely excited for this one :(
Thank you Edelweiss and Anansi Press for granting me this early copy in exchange for my honest opinion.
April 28, 2026
Seven Heavens Away by Ashraf Zaghal is a painful, yet absolutely beautifully written coming-of-age story. Three young Palestinian friends, Aziz, Hassan and Mustafa, attempt to navigate the political tensions, religious intolerance and escalating violence in the Jerusalem of 2015 while living under a regime that has restricted access to Muslim holy sites. Unsure which of their elders to trust as role models, each of the boys looks to a different figure for direction and guidance. When one of the boys is killed, the landscape of their community becomes increasingly dangerous and fraught with competing ideologies. Aziz becomes more devout and aligns himself with the actions of the Palestinian resistance, while his friend Mustafa is held in Israeli detention. The mastery of this text cannot be overstated – it is both lyrical and conversational while at the same time exposing the layers of complexity at this historical time. A must read. Highly recommended.
February 4, 2026
A very thought-provoking and interesting read. Told soley from the point of view of Aziz, a young Palestinian on the cusp of manhood, the story unfolds in a linear timeline during the Fall of 2015 and Spring of 2016 It gives a glimpse into the day to day life of the Arab minority in Jerusalem. Zaghal does a great job of plunking the reader into Aziz's world, and for most of the book, I was worried for Aziz. He is searching for purpose, struggling with an unstable home, and the choices he makes are unnerving, dangerous, and potentially disastrous. I felt a lack of emotion from Aziz, and I wonder if this is accurately depicted and is a side-effect of being born in a country at war. The novel starts with an incredible poem that tells of Aziz's future, I wish that the the future had been woven into a dual timeline or that there will be a follow-up book to carry the story forward.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
This is a coming-of-age story about a boy growing up in the shadow of the Israel–Palestine conflict. I appreciated how the author subtly leads the reader through the process of indoctrination. I could feel my own attitudes shifting alongside the characters, which was both effective and unsettling in the best way.
At times, though, the narrative felt a little disjointed, which pulled me out of the story more than I would have liked. Still, despite its flaws, this is an important and thought-provoking read that offers valuable insight into how environment, conflict, and belief systems shape a young person.
Thank you House of Anasi for the complimentary copy.
At times, though, the narrative felt a little disjointed, which pulled me out of the story more than I would have liked. Still, despite its flaws, this is an important and thought-provoking read that offers valuable insight into how environment, conflict, and belief systems shape a young person.
Thank you House of Anasi for the complimentary copy.
February 25, 2026
A great novel I'm very glad I read, following fifteen-year old Aziz, a Palestinian living in Jerusalem in 2015, who comes of age as tensions rise between Muslims and Jews.
This is a part of the world I haven't read a lot about and I really appreciated getting the perspective of someone young and impressionable - the author made it clear how easy it could be to get wrapped in what's going on around you, and how hard it is to get accurate information and know what to believe. I found the storytelling immersive and empathetic.
Thank you to the publisher House of Anansi for the free copy to read and review #SevenHeavensAway
This is a part of the world I haven't read a lot about and I really appreciated getting the perspective of someone young and impressionable - the author made it clear how easy it could be to get wrapped in what's going on around you, and how hard it is to get accurate information and know what to believe. I found the storytelling immersive and empathetic.
Thank you to the publisher House of Anansi for the free copy to read and review #SevenHeavensAway
May 12, 2026
Thank you NetGalley and House of Anansi Press for an e-ARC of this book!
This book is really well written, and provides a compelling coming-of-age story of Aziz, a teenager living under Israeli occupation. Zaghal thoughtfully examines connection amongst grief, anger, and uncertainty. A deeply moving story.
"There was laughing and crying mixed together. I could not stand that mix of sounds anymore: the wounded and hungry with the strong and joyful, the laughing and crying at the same time, taking the same breath, trying to say the same thing."
May 1, 2026
Thank you to House of Anansi and NetGalley for the eARC of this book.
You know when you see a car wreck coming but you can’t do anything about it? That’s how I felt about Aziz. A lot of his story just feels so familiar to me.
Aziz is a 15-year-old boy living under occupation in East Jerusalem in the mid-2010s. After he witnesses his best friend’s murder at the hands of an Israeli settler, Aziz falls into extremist thought as violence continues around him with no justice. Yeah…very familiar.
So much of what’s happening around Aziz is unfathomable to me in this "modern age"…imagine being killed because you offended someone by asking for a cigarette. Imagine being arrested because you told someone “No” while just doing your job. Imagine being jailed is just another part of life as an activist/freedom fighter/etc. (this one I can actually imagine. It's the indefinite imprisonment and torture for me that I can't imagine). Imagine being ejected from your home and the intruders kill your father. Imagine those same intruders shooting at you from your own balcony and you’re not allowed back in your home. Imagine being under constant surveillance. Imagine not being allowed in the mosque because somebody behind a desk decided that today only married people or those over the age of 40 are allowed in. The fact that this is just a fact of life in East Jerusalem is…. wild to me.
The story starts with Aziz and a group of his friends just hanging out in the Old City killing time before heading home. Looking to bum a cigarette off someone, they ask a man for a cigarette who then scoffs at them. That same man walks up to Israeli soldiers and starts pointing at the boys. Next thing you know, you’re running, shots are being fired, and you see your friend, Hassan, fall. He is then called a terrorist, and his body is held by authorities until they finally decide to release his body to his family. You are then told who can attend the funeral…yeah…. no.
Hassan is martyred and Aziz is left to deal with his grief and no justice for his friend. He meets Hassan’s father, a charismatic leader that teaches extremists points of view. I saw him falling into this very culty situation and immediately knew what was going to happen, I just didn’t know when.
Then we have Mustafa. Mustafa feels so familiar to me when he says he’s angry that the generations before him did not do enough. It reminded me of why Octavia Butler wrote Kindred. She wrote that novel after a conversation with a friend who said that the older generations of black folk were weak because they didn’t fight back. In both histories, the older generations did fight back. The powers that be had more…power.
Mustafa is what Aziz would have become if he fell deeper into extremist thought. The fact that Aziz didn’t become consumed by his circumstances is just sheer luck and the fact that he questioned what he was being taught. He burned the books and did the tasks he was asked, and he led with his anger, but it definitely feels like something was looking out for him in the way that no one was for Mustafa (although his brother did try).
The racial tension between Jews and Muslims is very reminiscent for me of the tensions between white and Black communities in the US. Now I understand why civil rights leaders aligned themselves with Palestinians. No justice, no peace. It makes sense to me.
This is a more character-driven story than plot based, although a lot happens. Aziz changes rapidly (as a teenager does) in this volatile environment. He’s dealing with his feelings toward a Jewish girl, Dafna, and his next-door neighbor. He has a growing resentment towards his father, Omar. What he doesn’t know is that his father is familiar with the path that Aziz is on. Omar was once on that path himself. That history changed the trajectory of his life, and he sees the same happening to his son. There’s only two ways this could end for his child: death or prison. He sees the wreck coming in the same way I did. There’s a cycle…how do you get your child out of that cycle?
It’s all-around sad. This story takes place between 2015 and 2016, but I don’t get the feeling much has changed since then. This story has been playing out for almost 100 years at this point. This novel shows us a slice of life, and I think Ashraf Zaghal did a good job of pulling me into this story. I started reading this novel and didn’t put it down for 5 hours. I can’t wait to get a copy of this so that I can annotate it.
I love it when a book requires some homework from me. I was familiar with the words “Camp David” and “Oslo Accords,” but they held no actual meaning for me. Well, a quick google search and many articles later, I have been educated. I remember seeing the conflict in Israel on TV as a teenager but didn’t really know what it was all about. I hadn’t even heard of Palestinians yet. I didn’t know how far back this conflict went. Well, over the years I found out. And I found out even more after October 7.
There is a mosque that is heavily featured in this novel. I learned that this mosque (Haram Al-Aqsa) was central to the arguments at the Camp David Summit in 2000. Who would have control over this mosque and many areas of Jerusalem, Gaza, the West Bank, etc. What happened after the failed attempts to come to an agreement? Who was blamed for the failure? What happened immediately after? A lot of googling happened.
February 23, 2026
3.5 rounded up
A moving debut coming of age story about a Palestinian teen boy that is perfect for fans of books like The kite runner. This story follows Aziz grappling with grief, guilt, identity and forbidden romance across the landscape of an increasingly violent Jerusalem. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review. Recommended for fans of authors like Saeed Teebi.
A moving debut coming of age story about a Palestinian teen boy that is perfect for fans of books like The kite runner. This story follows Aziz grappling with grief, guilt, identity and forbidden romance across the landscape of an increasingly violent Jerusalem. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review. Recommended for fans of authors like Saeed Teebi.
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October 6, 2025DNF. I feel like there's too much I'm missing to completely understand what's going on here. I get the overall story, but a lot of the details aren't making sense to me because of my lack of knowledge. And that's okay....not everything is for everybody. But I do feel like I might have learned something here.
March 7, 2026
The beginning of this book had me thinking that it was going to be an immigrant starting over in a new land story. Im glad it wasn’t, as I enjoyed and learned a lot from the depictions of daily Palestinian life under occupation. There were a lot of characters and I wish I had felt a stronger connection to them.
April 8, 2026
This book was slightly hard to follow at some points but its well worth any extra effort. My favorite quote that sums up the whole book is "Because at school they teach you about this and that leader conquering this and that land They don't teach you about the everyday lives of simple people like us. Real education comes from the streets. It comes from people who don't talk much."
February 9, 2026
ARC copy. I wanted to be swept up in this story, but much of the dialogue--particularly jokes and analogies--was tricky for me to understand and thus the story felt stilted. I am glad I read this and would recommend to anyone seeking to understand daily life for a Palestinian teen in Jerusalem.
April 14, 2026
A Palestinian coming-of-age tale that tells the story of Aziz, a boy figuring out his identity amid a backdrop of constant occupation, threat, and corruption.
Full of nuanced characters, here is life on the streets of Jerusalem and its people in all of their complex humanity.
Full of nuanced characters, here is life on the streets of Jerusalem and its people in all of their complex humanity.
May 1, 2026
Skilfully plotted, beautifully crafted, and hauntingly real, Seven Heavens Away is an immersive street-level look into the lives a group of Palestinian teens in Jerusalem and the conflicting forces that tug at them. Highly recommended.
October 21, 2025
This book is a necessary view into life as an adolescent coming of age under occupation in Jerusalem. Learning what it’s like to grow up under the constant gaze of the military is essential for those of us who want to better understand the Palestinian experience. Though the main character’s angst and confusion is well-written, I found that the text was laborious and the storyline difficult to follow at times.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
effective and necessary novel that does feel at points like it's lacking just that extra bit of depth to tip it over the edge, but even without it's a worthwhile read. 4 stars. tysm for the arc.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
In this coming of age novel, a young Palestinian man in Jerusalem struggles with violence, guilt, and grief.
February 18, 2026
I won this in a giveaway. i will read and review at a different time.
May 9, 2026
content warnings:
Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence, Islamophobia, Colonisation
Moderate: Torture, Police brutality, Car accident, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence, Islamophobia, Colonisation
Moderate: Torture, Police brutality, Car accident, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
February 9, 2026
Seven Heavens Away is an intriguing book set in Jerusalem in 2015 a city sectioned and quartered. This book delves into the complexities of living in a city that is all at once a melting pot of cultures, religions and backgrounds and simultaneously a regimented collection of districts. The main character is Aziz, a Muslim who lives in Jerusalem. He is a teenage boy who becomes swept up in the fanciful teaching of an older gentleman his "teacher". This book navigates the complex effect of division on youth as well as the susceptibility of people to extremist thinking when placed under the enormous pressure of division and exclusion. This novel does not shirk away from the realities of modern day Jerusalem. The tension between religious groups as well as the government surveillance are apparent.
I enjoyed this book very much it was an intimate and real look into a place in the world that many are watching as the conflict between Palestine and Israel continues. I especially enjoyed the careful and clear character development of the main character Azis as well as his friend Mustafa. This book shows a realistic transformation by a teen in their views over a relatively short amount of time. It is a good lesson in the effects of these high conflict environments on youth and demonstrates how these structures create vicious cycles of violence.
Overall very well written book on a relevant and interesting topic.
I enjoyed this book very much it was an intimate and real look into a place in the world that many are watching as the conflict between Palestine and Israel continues. I especially enjoyed the careful and clear character development of the main character Azis as well as his friend Mustafa. This book shows a realistic transformation by a teen in their views over a relatively short amount of time. It is a good lesson in the effects of these high conflict environments on youth and demonstrates how these structures create vicious cycles of violence.
Overall very well written book on a relevant and interesting topic.
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