Eden at Dawn

$18.00

by Karim Kattan

Translated from the French by Jeffrey Zuckerman

In a land forgotten by time, swept by sandstorms, and burdened by occupation, two young Palestinian men fall in love.

Paperback ISBN: 9781632064332
Publication date: September 22, 2026

Quantity:

Pre-Order Now!

Other order options:

Amazon | Kindle | Ebook

In the labyrinthine city of Jerusalem, where poets woo their lovers with tales of jinns, lions, and warriors, Isaac and Gabriel pass in the streets, unaware of one another until epic Egyptian winds bring enough sand to blot out the heavens. From their first meeting, desire blooms, hesitates, withdraws, and returns in a heady romance recounted by the sky itself, who cranes past rooftops and through windows to glimpse the pair. Defying checkpoints, desert squalls, and blazing heat, Gabriel and Isaac embark on a road trip through Jericho and past the Dead Sea to a storied village in the West Bank—a daring act in a divided country.

Lyrical and languorous, shattering and profound, Eden at Dawn is a feast of love in the midst of war. With this North American debut, lauded author Karim Kattan proves that storytelling is the ultimate act of devotion.

Praise for Eden at Dawn

“Kattan’s prose unfurls poetically as a prayer to the heart of Palestine—love told as an act of defiance and spellbound by the sands of the Khamaseen. This is Kattan’s haunting rebellion; an incantation against our cruel and violent humanity.”

— Mohammed Massoud Morsi, author of The Hair of the Pigeon

“Karim Kattan’s Eden at Dawn is a queer Palestinian love story that is breathtaking and refreshingly original, blending vivid poetics and gorgeous prose. It is the story of our times, wonderfully translated from French by Jeffrey Zuckerman. This is such an essential read.”

— Hasan Namir, author of God in Pink

“Karim Kattan plows his way into the literary world with novels with magnetic writing that take you far away, into a universe that is both sensual and political, of stunning beauty.”

— Alexandra Schwartzbrod, Libération

“Karim Kattan accomplishes, with this magnificent second novel, the most powerful act of which literature is capable: affirming the full and complete humanity of those to whom the world only grants a partial and conditional humanity.”

— Joy Majdalani, L'Orient-Le Jour

“Eden at Dawn, the first major homosexual work set in occupied territory, is a powerful rebuttal to prejudices about Palestine.”

— Jean Stern, Orient XXI

“A real and imagined Palestine, with its flowers, its pines, and the gentleness of its Mediterranean landscapes, offers a setting that is both sunny and terribly menacing and threatened. This is Kattan's way of keeping it alive and engaging.”

— Fifi Abou Dib, L’Orient littéraire

“A very beautiful, very sensitive book.”

— Nicolas Herbeaux, France Culture

“The writer-poet lets himself experiment and plays on the lyre string until it cracks and pierces the eardrums.”

— Cécile Dutheil de la Rochère, En attendant Nadeau

“Everything is true, even what is false. The novel, poetry, literature: that's what we're talking about here, and all at the same time.”

— Baptiste Thery-Guilbert, Diacritik

“A highly poetic, raw novel, full of the vitality of irony and orality, which makes tangible the glaring opposition between love and desire on the one hand, and violence and hatred on the other.”

— Kenza Sefrioui, Enass

“A magnificent novel.”

— Doan Bui, Bibliobs

“A sensual, lyrical, and unadorned language.”

— Faris Mounis, ActuaLitté

“A captivating and magical text of furious beauty. A cry of freedom and love.”

— Théophile Lacroix, Payot, Geneva

“A text swept by the winds of dazzling beauty.”

— Mathieu, Decitre, Grenoble

“A real slap in the face.”

— The tiny bookstore, Paris 20th

“A moving story about two very different people, who clumsily but lovingly seek how to be in the world.”

— Les mots à la bouche, Paris 11th

“What style, what beauty, what poetry… Eden at Dawn is a unique novel, which subtly blends beauty and tragedy, love and violence.”

— Pascal, Grenouille bookstore, Langeac

“This striking, striking, and moving read offers, through fiction, a salutary illumination of Palestinian lives.”

— Elsa, La voie aux chapitres, Lyon

“The preciousness and poetic love that define his writing make Karim Kattan one of the most unique contemporary voices. Humanity is praised with finesse in each page of this novel. Fabulous!”

— Little Egypt

“It's Beautiful, it's Tender, this novel knows violence and knows how to make it sublime.”

— Mallory, Arthaud bookstore, Grenoble

“Karim Kattan's enchanting writing adopts an Arabian mythology to give us a poetic, phantasmagorical book, filled with the scent of spices, warm colors, and all-consuming passions, but also made up of a latent violence in every path, every road, every village.”

— Didier, Librairie des Pertuis, Saint Pierre d'Oléron

“A thousand-year-old tale, sensual, brilliant, heartbreaking.”

— The Regular

“Magical!! A little gem of literature.”

— Lucie, Les Nouveautés, Paris 10th

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Karim Kattan is a Palestinian writer from Bethlehem, born in Jerusalem. He writes fiction, essays, and poetry. His first novel, The Palace on the Higher Hill, won the 2021 Prix des cinq continents de la francophonie. His second novel, Eden at Dawn, has received several awards and was shortlisted for the prestigious Prix Renaudot 2024. His books have been translated into several languages.

ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR

Jeffrey Zuckerman is a translator of French literature. His work centers on contemporary fiction from mainland France and Mauritius—including Ananda Devi, Shenaz Patel, and Carl de Souza—as well as texts of the queer canon, including Jean Genet and Hervé Guibert. A recipient of the PEN/Heim Translation Grant, the French Voices Grand Prize, and a National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship, he has been named a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government.