Strangers in the house : coming of age in occupied Palestine

Raja Shehadeh was born into a successful Palestinian family with a beautiful house overlooking the Mediterranean.

When the state of Israel was formed in 1948 the family were driven out to the provincial town of Ramallah where they had a summer house.

There he grew up 'in the shadow of his father' an important civil rights lawyer.

He vowed not to become involved in politics or law but inevitably did so and became an important activist himself.

In 1985 his father was stabbed to death. The Israeli police failed to investigate the murder properly and Shehadeh, the lawyer, set about solving the crime that destroyed his family.

This is a remarkable book: a memoir of exile - being a 'stranger in his own land' - and also a memoir of a remarkable father and an account of political education.

It is the best possible book to understand the problems of the Middle East.

But it is a wonderful personal story by a writer of edge and subtlety.