“This is what translating Lebanese fiction is like for me – not a window into a foreign world, but into my own world, the world that might have been had my grandparents not immigrated to America at the turn of the century.”

“Although Moving the Palace can be read anywhere, it would make an excellent summer beach read. In any event, it should savored while in a warm place, preferably on the sand, so each sentence can spread out, like a camel ambling across the desert.”

“The bitter edge of the blustery cold softened as the fog dropped over the land, thick as a felt saddle blanket. The mountain paths and ravines were no longer distinguishable, making it impossible to guess how much distance remained ahead. Features of the landscape known popularly as the Frenchmen’s Chamber, Deaf-mute’s Crevice, St Severin’s Elbow, the Cross of the Sacred Heart, had all vanished.”