As part of the cultural and literary review Aperitivo con l'Autore by Brazzale, on Sunday 20 July 2025 in Asiago, at the central stage of Piazza Carli, Alae Al Said, Italian-Palestinian writer, will be a guest with her debut novel "The boy with the orange keffiyeh".
Set in Hebron in the early sixties, the book tells the life of Loai Qasrawi, an orange-haired boy, an easy target of bullying. The son of a keffiyeh craftsman, Loai forms an intense friendship with Ahmad, a street boy with a difficult past. Their lives are divided when Loai is sent to study in Nablus, but they meet again years later when Loai returns to Hebron as a medical student. In an increasingly tense context, marked by the Six-Day War and the Israeli occupation, Ahmad was arrested and charged with rebellion. Before being taken away, he gives Loai an orange keffiyeh, a symbol of their unbreakable bond.
Loai, deeply marked, abandoned his studies and took over the family business, transforming the keffiyeh into a symbol of resistance and identity. Years later, in 1994, he told his story to an American journalist, unaware that he was Ahmad's nephew. He died shortly after, during the Hebron massacre, wearing the orange keffiyeh in memory of his friend.
The novel is the result of an intense work of documentation and memory, in which the author has collected direct testimonies from her family members, including that of her mother, who witnessed tragic events such as the Six-Day War and the 1994 massacre.
What emerges is a vivid and poignant portrait of a resilient Palestine, wounded but never bent, and a universal narrative about the strength of friendship, love for one's land and the right to freedom.
Admission to the event is free, subject to availability.
In case of bad weather, the venue of the meeting may be subject to change. For updates and information, you can contact the bookshop through the appropriate buttons at the bottom of the page.
Alae Al Said was born in Rome in 1991 to a family of Palestinian origins. He grew up with a love for his homeland and a strong sense of justice for the Palestinian cause. He graduated in International Sciences at the University of Milan. He is currently continuing his studies at the Faculty of International Relations.
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