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Contested Land, Contested Memory

Help a "moving, lyrical & very important" book - Contested Land, Contested Memory: Israel's Jews & Arabs & the Ghosts of Catastrophe - reach a wider readership

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Contested Land, Contested Memory

Contested Land, Contested Memory

Contested Land, Contested Memory

Contested Land, Contested Memory

Contested Land, Contested Memory

Help a "moving, lyrical & very important" book - Contested Land, Contested Memory: Israel's Jews & Arabs & the Ghosts of Catastrophe - reach a wider readership

Help a "moving, lyrical & very important" book - Contested Land, Contested Memory: Israel's Jews & Arabs & the Ghosts of Catastrophe - reach a wider readership

Help a "moving, lyrical & very important" book - Contested Land, Contested Memory: Israel's Jews & Arabs & the Ghosts of Catastrophe - reach a wider readership

Help a "moving, lyrical & very important" book - Contested Land, Contested Memory: Israel's Jews & Arabs & the Ghosts of Catastrophe - reach a wider readership

Jo Roberts
Jo Roberts
Jo Roberts
Jo Roberts
1 Campaign |
Toronto, Canada
$1,092 USD $1,092 USD 20 backers
63% of $1,728 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal
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Hello! My name’s Jo Roberts. My book, Contested Land, Contested Memory: Israel’s Jews and Arabs and the Ghosts of Catastrophe, has just been published by Dundurn Press. I’m getting very positive feedback so far (see below); and the first review, in Publishers Weekly, said “Roberts does a masterful job of presenting all perspectives in their proper context.” Now, I just need to get the word out more widely! Can you help?

How much am I trying to raise, and how would I use it?

These days, the publishing industry’s in turmoil, and authors have to do most of their own book promotion. I'm not expecting to make any money from this book— aside from some Arts Council writing grants, and a $2,000 publishers' advance, I've been living off my savings. But I feel passionately about this. I know that there’s a receptive audience out there for books like mine – books on Israel/Palestine that seek to deepen understanding, rather than fight a war of words. To reach that audience, I need to get my book into the hands of people who are in a position to recommend it widely.

I’d like to raise $2,500. Here’s how I’d use it:

$2,000: I’d buy copies of my book at cost, and mail them with a personal letter to the people on my growing list. Your money would be spent on books, mailers, and postage. Depending on postage variables, each book will cost $22-35 to buy and ship out.

$500: I’d put this money aside for travel expenses, to accept the out-of-town invitations to speak that are coming in. If I raise over $2,500, that’s what the money will go to.

What my book's about

1948: As Jewish refugees, survivors of the Holocaust, struggle toward the new State of Israel, Arab refugees are fleeing, many under duress. Sixty years later, the memory of trauma has shaped both peoples' collective understanding of who they are.

After a war, the victors write history. How was the story of the exiled Palestinians erased -- from textbooks, maps, even the land? How do Jewish and Palestinian Israelis now engage with the histories of the Palestinian Nakba ("Catastrophe") and the Holocaust, and how do these echo through the political and physical landscapes of their country?

Vividly narrated, with extensive original interview material, Contested Land, Contested Memory examines how these tangled histories of suffering inform Jewish and Palestinian-Israeli lives today, and frame Israel's possibilities for peace.

While Contested Land, Contested Memory is grounded in scholarly research, it’s written for the general reader. The many Jewish and Palestinian Israelis I interviewed tell much of the story.

Why I wrote my book

The debate around Israel/Palestine, and much of the literature on the topic, is tremendously polarized. I have my own political perspective, having been a human rights observer in the West Bank, but what I wanted to do in this book is to convey how the memory of past trauma has shaped both people’s collective understanding of themselves and each other. This gives breathing room to the complexities of human experience, the fears and vulnerabilities of human suffering. As one of the Israelis I interviewed said to me, “We can’t communicate if we won’t acknowledge the pain the Other is feeling.”

Advance Praise

“In this moving, lyrical, and very important book, with some of the bravest and most honest of Israelis and Palestinians as guides, Roberts offers readers an intimate, often searing tour of the country’s psychological landscape.”

Professor Ian Lustick, Bess W. Heyman chair of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania

“This compelling and compassionate book offers fresh insight into how these divergent histories reverberate in Israel today, examining how selective memories of suffering that exclude the “other” impede reconciliation and a just peace.”

Mubarak Awad, founder, Palestinian Centre for the Study of Nonviolence

“[T]his nuanced, empathic, and knowledgeable book is an important read for supporters of [both Israelis and Palestinians], and for people seeking a book through which to enter the charged field of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

Hillel Cohen, Israeli historian and journalist

“[This] beautifully written book provides an essential perspective on a topic that could not be more urgent. . . [and] captures the voices of Jewish and Palestinian Israelis in all their diversity, pain, and eloquence.”

— Professor Michael Rothberg, Director of the Holocaust, Genocide, & Memory Studies Initiative at the University of Illinois 

(You can read the full endorsements, and more about me and my book, on my website: www.joroberts.org)

[November 27th UPDATE: Embassy, Canada's foreign policy weekly, just published a glowing review: "Her writing has academic credibility and personal appeal. If that sounds unlikely, it is. Only a writer as good as Roberts could make it work—but work it does, as it proceeds to unravel Israel’s paradoxical political identity." ]

Why I need crowdfunding

I’m discovering that these days authors are expected to do the lion’s share of promoting their books. My publisher sent out some advance copies, and will send review copies to anyone who has definite plans to review the book. I’d like to be more proactive. What I want to do is to send out copies to all sorts of people who are in a position to spread the word: potential reviewers, writers in related fields, folks with a specific interest in what’s happening in Israel-Palestine.

I’ve written for a general audience, but my book would also be of interest to academics. My publisher doesn’t have academic sales reps, so effectively no promotion will be happening in that sphere. I’d like people in related academic fields to know about my book – partly, of course, to increase sales (if a few profs choose a book as recommended reading for a course, that really helps) but particularly because I want the book and its ideas to circulate as widely as possible.

Everyone’s swamped with email these days, so I don’t just want to send an email describing the book to all those people, and have it get lost in the shuffle  – I want to send a copy of the book itself.

How you can help!

  • You can help crowdfund my project!
  • You can spread the word about Contested Land, Contested Memory via email, Facebook, or Twitter!  (Contact me via the Comments section if you’d like me to send you an html email describing the book to forward to your networks.)
  • You can share this campaign with your networks!
  • If you’ve read the book, you can write a review on Amazon.com or Goodreads!

Many thanks for considering supporting me! Any help you can offer is very much appreciated.

And a special thank you to my wonderful Indiegogo Team: Franca, Tim, Jenny, and Claire, and to the awesome Julia Dogra-Brazell for contributing the pitch video.


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