Brought to you by Penguin.

Hello and welcome to the Penguin podcast where we talk to writers about writing.

I'm Izzy Suttie and today I'm going to be

talking to Isabella Hamad, the award-winning British-Palestinian author of the critically

acclaimed the Parisian. Isabella's latest novel, Enter Ghost, tells the story of Sonia, an actor

who returns to her ancestral homeland of Palestine after years of living away in London.

It's been described by The Guardian as Hamlet in Palestine,

and it's also been called a timely, thoughtful and passionate story of the connection to be found in family and shared resistance.

Isabella, it's lovely to have you here today. Welcome to the Penguin podcast.

Thank you very much for having me.

I've just finished your book and I cried.

And I laughed at lots of points as well.

And I also went back and reread lots of your beautiful metaphors,

especially about the relationship between the main character,

Sonia and her sister and her

relationship to family. And I loved this book. I drank it in. I think it's a book to be really

savoured and probably re-read. I found it really moving and also really funny and human.

And the intricacies of the relationships between Sonia and various

characters, especially as I say, her sister Hanine and the director of Hamlet, Mariam, who she

becomes closer and closer to as the novel goes on, made me think of my relationship with my

own sister and lots of my friends. And I've got a friend called Maruta from Slovenia, who I found really similar

to Mariam, in that she is quite blunt and always says what she thinks. And I think she taught me

...