# The Illusion of Return

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/samir-el-youssef/the-illusion-of-return/9781905559077

![The Illusion of Return](https://quivercdn.com/covers/halban-publishers/samir-el-youssef/the-illusion-of-return_978-19-0555-907-7.jpg?v=2026-05-17%2004%3A57%3A25)

- Book: [The Illusion of Return](https://www.bookquiver.com/samir-el-youssef/the-illusion-of-return) ([The Illusion of Return.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/samir-el-youssef/the-illusion-of-return.md))
- Authors: [Samir El-Youssef](https://www.bookquiver.com/samir-el-youssef)
- Publisher: halban_publishers
- ISBN: 978-19-0555-907-7
- Pages: 1
- Published: 2008-02-07
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: Softcover

## Description

After 17 years, the narrator and his friend, Ali, meet at Heathrow and slowly remember their past in a Palestinian camp in Lebanon. Their memories are concentrated on one fatal night when they were with two other friends for the last time, before tragedy struck. But for the narrator, a personal tragedy had occurred much earlier¿ Like many other Palestinians, both Ali and the narrator had to leave Lebanon in the mid-1980s, when it became a battleground for local armies - Ali to America, the narrator to London. But this is not just a story about suffering, it is also about absurd politics and violence - about a world where tragedy and comedy co-exist. A poignant story that lingers long after one has finished it.