Men in the Sun

Ghassan Kanafani · 1936–1972 · Palestine

Originally Rijal fi al-Shams (Arabic) · translated by Hilary Kilpatrick

Why it matters

Three Palestinians cross the desert hidden in an empty water tank, seeking work in Kuwait. Kanafani compresses exile and dispossession into an unbearable parable: the defining fiction of the refugee experience.

At a glance

Short but structurally compressed, shifting between four perspectives with a spare, allegorical style.