REVIEW: “Vengeance” by Tasnim Abutabikh

Review of Tasnim Abutabikh, “Vengeance”, in Basma Ghalayini, ed., Palestine+100, (Comma Press, 2019): 103-116 — Purchase here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman. (Read the review of the anthology.)

Ahmed is on a vengeance mission, to track down the descendant of the man who betrayed one of his ancestors. When he finds the man in question, Yousef Abdulqader, he plays the long game, seeking employment with Abdulqader (who makes prosthetic limbs and other devices) and gaining his trust, until one day he follows Abdulqader to a secret meeting with a terrorist leader, photographs him, and turns in the evidence to the police. Finally, he’s got this vengeance.

But of course, no story is ever as simple as that, and the complicating twist in this one is desperately heartbreaking.