Perfect Victims: And the Politics of Appeal

"It’s been a while since I read a book that was simultaneously so easy and so difficult to read. Perfect Victims is beautifully written – the prose is gripping and poetic. But sitting with the meaning is a true challenge. It’s a book that forces readers to grapple with who they identify with and why; how our society lets some people be human and forces others to be either angels or monsters. Mohammed El-Kurd shows how Palestinians have been stripped of their humanity in both directions, as “perfect victims” or unredeemable villains. And in spelling out the process, he shows how, under the right circumstances, any group can be written into the same story."