Jasmine Donahaye Boeken

Donahaye's debut collection of poetry is subdivibded into three sections, Deceits, The Natural World and Natural Processes.

Rooted in a Jewish family history that reaches into 19th-century Ottoman Palestine, Self-Portrait as Ruth is written in defiance of all official versions of Israeli or Palestinian history. A challenging, aching, honest exploration of culpability, this lament will incite controversy and debate. These poems are interrogations of the first-person possessive--of claims, both singular and plural, to land, to identity, to history, and to the body--and of wounds and victimization, both unique and collective.

During a phone call to her mother Jasmine Donahaye stumbled upon the collusion of her kibbutz family in the displacement of Palestinians in 1948 - and earlier, in the 1930s. She set out to learn the facts behind this revelation, and her discoveries challenged everything she thought she knew about the country and her family, transforming her understanding of Israel, and of herself.In a moving and honest account that spans travel writing, nature writing and memoir, Losing Israel explores the powerful attachments people have to place and to contested national stories. Moving between Wales and Israel, and attempting to reconcile her conflicted feelings rooted in difficult family history and a love of Israel's birds, the author asks challenging questions about homeland and belonging, and the power of stories to shape a landscape.

Focusing on the unique experiences of women in relation to nature, the book delves into the pursuit of feeling 'sharply alive' while confronting fears associated with the body's vulnerabilities. With a bristling yet ethical approach, it challenges conventional perspectives on the natural world, highlighting the constraints women face.