«In Isabella Hammad’s spellbinding novel, Enter Ghost, a group of Palestinian actors and their director rehearse for a production of Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, in the West Bank.

Told from the perspective of Sonia, a young Palestinian-British woman who has left London and a broken relationship to visit her sister in Haifa, Hammad’s captivating story asks what happens to the imagination when placed under duress. What survives? What leaves only its ghostly imprint?

What makes Enter Ghost impossible to put down is its refusal to accept easy answers. Instead, as Sonia navigates between her work on the set and family tensions, we come to recognize something essential and necessary in this theater group’s Quixotic determination to perform Hamlet under the surveillance of Israeli authorities.

Hammad’s writing, moving easily between lyrical and strident while remaining always beautiful and insightful, guides us through difficult moments with fierce intelligence and generosity.

Enter Ghost asks us to confront some of the most urgent questions facing the world today about the power of creativity in the face of oppression and violence, and what it means to remain free while living under occupation. This novel reveals a gifted writer’s ability to craft a compulsively readable book that is also profoundly touching and unforgettable».
The Jury’s motivation