Dubai-based British-Palestinian author Shereen Malherbe has been writing about her homeland for more than a decade. From Jasmine Falling (MB Publishing, 2015) to The Land Beneath The Light (Beacon Books, 2022), her stories centre female characters and their plights to uncover intriguing mysteries while piecing together their family histories. Malherbe’s latest, Yassini Girls (Beacon Books: 2024), is her most personal yet, largely inspired by her own story.
In 2023, the BBC aired a documentary film called The Holy Land and Us – Our Untold Stories, which Malherbe took part in, traveling back to Palestine and learning how her predecessors were impacted by events in her homeland. “I discovered what happened to my family; something I had not been told until my grandmother passed away,” says Malherbe. “It changed everything I thought I knew and had been writing about, for the last decade.”
This experience formed the foundation of her novel, Yassini Girls, which, aside from the addition of some fictional elements, is inspired by Malherbe’s personal journey and family history. The main character, Layla, finds a family heirloom beneath the attic floor of her home in Britain, which leads to an expedition to Palestine to discover its meaning. Utilising symbols such as a treasure map and an embroidered thobe, Malherbe weaves together an intricate story of family, faith, friendship and loss.
