review
Alena Jabarine’s ‘The Last Sky’ is a powerful account of life in Palestine, as experienced by a German-Palestinian journalist with a unique perspective. Born and raised in Hamburg, Jabarine holds dual German and Israeli citizenship. From 2020 to 2022, she lived in Ramallah, working for a German aid organisation, and documenting everyday life under Israeli occupation. Her voice is journalistic and reflective, combining eyewitness reporting with personal memories and political insights.
In childhood, Jabarine was a regular visitor to her father’s hometown of Umm al-Fahm during the summer, but as an adult she seeks to understand the Palestinian experience beyond these family holidays, choosing to live in Ramallah. She captures the sensory and emotional landscape of Palestine in direct, vivid prose: the scents of za’atar, mint, and lemons; the rhythm of the olive harvest; and the militarised realities of checkpoints, incursions, and systemic surveillance. From Hebron to Tulkarem, she chronicles life under military rule with an eye for detail and a refusal to look away.
What makes ‘The Last Sky’ particularly compelling is Jabarine’s position as a cultural mediator. She moves fluently between Ramallah, Jerusalem, and the Israeli coast, a Palestinian who is able to ‘pass’ as Israeli, German, or English, offering a nuanced view of how identity shapes perception. As she herself puts it: ‘My role is neither easily definable nor clearly discernible. And so I gain insights that remain hidden to others.’ This liminality becomes one of the book’s greatest strengths. Whether she is witnessing an incursion by Israeli soldiers, or joining undocumented workers as they sneak through illegal crossing points, Jabarine’s presence is neither distanced nor romanticised. She is both witness and participant.
The narrative is loosely structured around encounters and themes, offering snapshots of different aspects of everyday life: family, work, travel, protest, and survival. Its accessibility and immediacy make it well suited to general readers in English.
A recipient of the prestigious Grimme Online Award for her journalism, Jabarine is already a recognised voice in European media, and a highly capable international spokesperson for her book. ‘The Last Sky’ was a SPIEGEL bestseller in Germany.
Find out more: https://www.ullstein.de/werke/der-letzte-himmel/hardcover/9783550203145
All recommendations from Autumn 2025