The Velvet Box Letters

A dance with the past unearths secrets that change everything two teenagers thought they knew about their family histories, and their own futures.

Farida and Mazen, two Arab teenagers of Palestinian heritage, meet during a chance encounter at the Louvre in France. Farida is a talented painter who recreates European masterpieces under the patronizing gaze of an art dealer, while Mazen is visiting the art museum to solve the mystery of a family heirloom. As the two come to know each other, they discover a shared history between their grandmothers (sittis). Farida's sitti fled her home during the Nakba in 1948, and put down roots in Syria—now also beset by war. The Nakba made Mazen's sitti a refugee too, but she carried her diary and letters in a velvet-lined box when her family was forced into exile.

Velvet Box Letters moves from Paris to Haifa, from Aleppo to Tangier, conjuring the vibrant cities of the Mediterranean with all the warmth of memory. In this enchanting English debut, Hooda Shawa explores how young Palestinians in the diaspora can redefine their stories while reclaiming the legacy of their forebears.