Jailed Palestinian writer pens story for children of prisoners
Behind bars since the age of 25, 57-year-old Palestinian writer Walid Daqqa sends out a message of hope in a book for children of parents caught in prison or the wider occupied territories.
RAMALLAH, West Bank — “The Tale of the Secret of Oil,” a new book for young readers, was launched this September at the Mahmoud Darwish museum in Ramallah, but unlike most book launches, the author, Walid Daqqa, was conspicuously absent. He wrote the book in prison, where he has been since 1986.
"The Tale of the Secret of Oil” is Daqqa's first novel for children and adolescents, though he has written others in the genre known as prison literature. Published by the Tamer Institute for Community Education, it narrates the story of 12-year-old Jude, who was conceived with his father’s sperm smuggled out of prison.
