The Lives of Rain

20th Anniversary Edition

By: Nathalie Handal

Write A Review

Paperback | 10 June 2025

At a Glance

Paperback
208 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
22.23 x 13.34 x 0.51

Paperback

$47.99

or 4 interest-free payments of $12.00 with

or

Ships in 10 to 15 business days

Shortlisted for the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize/The Pitt Poetry Series

“In The Lives of Rain, Nathalie Handal has brought forth a work of radical displacement and uncertainty, moving continent to continent, giving voice to Palestinians of the diaspora in the utterance of one fiercely awake and compassionate, who, against warfare, occupation and brutality offers her native language, olives, wind, a herd of sheep or a burning mountain, radio music, a butterfly’s gaze. It is a poetry of never arriving, of villages erased from the maps, of tattooed waistlines and kalishnikovs, a goat and a corpse cut open side by side, where every house is a prison. In a spare, chiseled language without ornament, she writes an exilic lyric, fusing Arabic, English, Spanish and French into a polyglot testament of horror and survival. Habibti, que tal? she asks of those who wander country to country, while those left behind in Jenin, Gaza City, and Bethlehem inhabit a continued past of blood/of jailed cities. Her subject is memory and forgetting, the precariousness of identity and the fragility of human community; it is the experience of suffering without knowledge of its end. Handal is a poet of deftly considered paradoxes and reversals, sensory evocations and mysteries left beautifully unresolved. Hers is a language seared by history and marked by the impress of extremity; so it is suffused with a rare species of wisdom. — From the Foreword by Carolyn Forché

Industry Reviews

“Handal is an important and eloquent voice whose poetic vision is as rare as it is necessary.”

Shipping

	Standard Shipping	Express Shipping
Metro postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95
Regional postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95
Rural postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95

Orders over $79.00 qualify for free shipping.

How to return your order

At Booktopia, we offer hassle-free returns in accordance with our returns policy. If you wish to return an item, please get in touch with Booktopia Customer Care.

Additional postage charges may be applicable.

Defective items

If there is a problem with any of the items received for your order then the Booktopia Customer Care team is ready to assist you.

For more info please visit our Help Centre.

More in Poetry

the love of my life

poetry for rediscovery

Paperback

RRP $32.99

$24.99

24%
OFF

Whisper Songs

Paperback

RRP $24.99

$20.75

17%
OFF

No Hiding From the Woman in the Moon

Paperback

RRP $27.99

$23.75

15%
OFF

I Still Believe in Miracles

Poems to Find Meaning in Difficult Times

Hardcover

RRP $39.99

$31.75

21%
OFF

The Lives of Rain

20th Anniversary Edition

At a Glance

Paperback

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

More in Poetry

the love of my life

poetry for rediscovery

A Thousand Mornings

Rookie

My Public, Private, and Secret Life

Loss: The New Collection

Words to weather the many waves of grief from the No. 1 Sunday Times Bestseller

Dropbear

Winner of the 2022 Stella Prize

Poems & Prayers

Matthew McConaughey's brand new inspirational book

They Bloom Because of You

On the Infinite Love, Growth and Magic of Motherhood

The Rot

ABIA 2026 SMALL PUBLISHER ADULT BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER and SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2026 STELLA PRIZE

Tender

100 poems for the first 100 days of life

The Complete Poems of John Keats

Wordsworth Poetry Library

The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe - Omnibus Edition

Barnes & Noble Leatherbound Classic Collection

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

Barnes & Noble Leatherbound Classic Collection

The Prophet

Penguin Classics Hardcover

The Power Of Your Subconscious Mind (revised)

One Of The Most Powerful Self-help Guides Ever Written!

Lao Tzu

Tao Te Ching

Heroes

The myths of the Ancient Greek heroes retold

Beautiful Chaos

On Motherhood, Finding Yourself and Overwhelming Love

The Divine Comedy - Omnibus Edition

Barnes & Noble Leatherbound Classic Collection

The Essential Rumi

New Expanded Edition

The Iliad

Penguin Classics

May You Always Know

A poem of hopes and dreams

Whisper Songs

No Hiding From the Woman in the Moon

I Still Believe in Miracles

Poems to Find Meaning in Difficult Times

This product is categorised by