Once Upon a Country — Sari Nusseibeh

Full Title: Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life
Sari Nusseibeh, with Anthony David
Farrar, Straus and Giroux · New York · 2007
First Edition · First Printing · Signed

The Book:
The First Edition · First Printing of Sari Nusseibeh’s Once Upon a Country, his memoir of a Palestinian life intertwined with war, occupation, imprisonment, resistance, negotiation, and the pursuit of Israeli-Palestinian coexistence. Written with Anthony David, the book traces Nusseibeh’s life from his Jerusalem childhood through the aftermath of 1948 and 1967, the First Intifada, his 1991 imprisonment, Palestinian politics and state-building, and his evolution toward nonviolent resistance and a negotiated peace. viii, 542 pp., plus eight unnumbered pages of plates. This copy is signed by Sari Nusseibeh on the title page and retains its original unclipped $27.50 dust jacket.

Condition:
Fine book in a Fine original dust jacket. Original gray paper-covered boards over a darker gray spine with gilt spine lettering remain exceptionally well preserved. The original jacket is unclipped at $27.50, with no significant chips, tears, fading, or material wear observed. Nusseibeh’s signature appears clearly in black ink on the title page beneath his printed name. A small pencil notation appears on the rear free endpaper; otherwise exceptionally clean. No evidence of book-club manufacture, rebinding, restoration, or facsimile jacket observed.

Story Of The Book

Sari Nusseibeh spent his life arguing that Palestinians could resist occupation without surrendering either their humanity or Israel’s right to exist—and discovered that moderation could make enemies on both sides.

Born into one of Jerusalem’s oldest Palestinian families, Nusseibeh lived through war, occupation, uprising, imprisonment, failed negotiations, and the rise and fracture of the Palestinian national movement. His memoir moves between personal memory and political history because, in his life, the two were rarely separable.

Nusseibeh opposed Israeli occupation and settlement policy, advocated Palestinian self-determination, and was imprisoned in 1991. But he also condemned suicide bombings, criticized corruption and failures within Palestinian leadership, and argued for coexistence when compromise itself could be treated as betrayal.

That refusal to make the conflict morally simple is what gives the memoir its force. Nusseibeh writes as a Palestinian participant with unmistakable commitments, but not with unquestioning loyalty to any political authority.

He resisted occupation without romanticizing resistance—and pursued peace without pretending either side was innocent.

Why It’s In The Collection

Once Upon a Country belongs in Consigned to Darkness because dissent becomes especially difficult when it requires challenging not only an adversary, but your own side.

Nusseibeh was not merely a witness to Palestinian history. He repeatedly tried to change its course: advocating nonviolent resistance, participating in political life, enduring imprisonment, confronting Israeli authority, and challenging Palestinian violence and political absolutism.

That makes his memoir an important companion to the collection’s other Palestinian witness objects. It restores the conflict to the scale of an individual life while preserving a political position that refuses the demand for uncomplicated allegiance.

This signed first printing carries that testimony in the hand of one of its participants: a Palestinian intellectual arguing simultaneously for national freedom, human dignity, nonviolence, and coexistence.

For Nusseibeh, dissent meant refusing to let either side decide which truths he was permitted to tell.

Collection Categories: Witness Literature · Memoir & Testimony · Political Dissent · Political Imprisonment · Human Rights · Anti-Authoritarianism · Anti-Colonialism · Political Movements · Political History · War & Conflict · Peace & Nonviolence · Signed

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Authentication Evidence

• Title page identifies the work as Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life by Sari Nusseibeh with Anthony David.

• Title page bears the Farrar, Straus and Giroux · New York publisher imprint.

• Copyright page states “Copyright © 2007 by Sari Nusseibeh.”

• Copyright page explicitly states “First edition, 2007,” directly establishing First Edition status.

• Copyright page carries the complete number line 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1, directly establishing First Printing status.

• Copyright page gives ISBN 978-0-374-29950-7, matching bibliographic records for the 2007 Farrar, Straus and Giroux hardcover first edition.

• Institutional cataloging collates the first edition as viii, 542 pages plus eight unnumbered pages of plates.

• Original gray publisher’s binding with darker gray spine and gilt spine lettering remains present.

• Original Farrar, Straus and Giroux dust jacket remains present.

• Dust jacket is unclipped and retains the original $27.50 publisher’s price.

• Title page bears Sari Nusseibeh’s signature in black ink beneath his printed name.

• No presentation inscription or documented association provenance is present.

• No evidence of book-club manufacture, later printing, rebinding, restoration, facsimile dust jacket, or replacement components is observed.

• Observable physical and bibliographic evidence supports identification as the 2007 First Edition · First Printing · Signed.