RAMALLAH, West Bank — 2018 has been a big year for Palestinian literature, with Palestinian-Jordanian author Ibrahim Nasrallah’s winning of the Arab world's top literary prize, the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, for his dystopian novel “The Second War of the Dog.”

In September, Palestinian literature celebrated another victory as the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) selected the novel “Ana wa-sadiqi wa-al-himar” (“Me, My Friend and The Donkey”) by Palestinian author Mahmoud Shukair for its 2018 honor list of the top 100 children’s novels around the world. The selection was announced after the IBBY’s 36th international congress held in Athens, Greece, in the beginning of September.

Shukair is no first-time literary prize winner. In 2011, he was awarded the Mahmoud Darwish Prize for Freedom of Expression. He was also short-listed for IPAF two years ago for his adult novel, “Praise for the Women of the Family.” Shukair is the author of 45 books, six television series and four plays, some of which have been translated into English, French, German, Chinese, Mongolian and Czech. The books of the Jerusalem-born author mostly center on Palestinians’ struggle with modernity, displacement, migration and other changes brought to their lives by the volatile political atmosphere in the Middle East.

“Me, My Friend and The Donkey” is no different. It takes up the story of a Mohammad al-Salhout, a boy who transports wheat and barley on his donkey to make a living. But when his donkey is stolen, the boy leaves Palestine to go to the United States. The final chapter narrates his return to Jerusalem from Houston as a successful businessman who recalls with nostalgia both old Jerusalem and his donkey. The story is inspired by the real-life story of one of Shukair’s childhood friends and although the take is realistic, the author plays with symbolism extensively. For example, the donkey theme recurs throughout the protagonist’s life — in the poems of Mahmoud Darwish, the Day of the Donkey in Mexico and as the symbol of the Democratic Party in the United States.