Explosive toilets, stuffed dead giraffes and “special milk” … welcome to the Palestine that rarely makes it on to the news. “A Year on Fire Mountain” is Anna Habibti’s diary of her year in Nablus, one of the most isolated cities in the West Bank of the occupied Palestinian territories. It’s a story of life in a community physically restricted by the constant presence of the Israeli army and socially and psychologically stunted by several decades of occupation. But it’s also a celebration of the resilience, inventiveness and determination of the residents of Nablus and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories; neither ‘victims’ nor ‘villains’, but ordinary people trying to get by in extraordinary circumstances. The bit of land between the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan might be tiny, but events there have had a massive impact on the shaping of the modern Western world, inspiring Osama bin Laden, the London 7/7 suicide bombers and countless others to take up their ‘jihad’ against the West. A Year on Fire Mountain gives an insight into why and how, but with compassion, humour and a sense of the absurd. Note: I paid my own way to and in Palestine and no one has paid me anything during the year-plus it has taken me, working full-time, to write the book and make it into something I hope readers will like. Therefore, if the sample you download adds as much to your life as, say, two cups of coffee in a chain coffee-shop, please think about paying to download the whole thing - then maybe I can afford to drink coffee too. Thanks!