"A rich tapestry of the personal, the literary and the political, skillfully woven by a sympathetic writer. . . . Hoffman's intense but often humorous book is a powerful reminder of the singularity and complexity of this most intractable of conflicts and of the ability of the human spirit to be creative in adversity."--The Guardian

"Beautifully written. . . . In tracing [Muhammad Ali's] life . . . Hoffman manages to illuminate the experience of an entire people. She is scrupulously even-handed. . . . [This] is not only the biography of a remarkable man; it is an act of reclamation against the erosions of memory."--Eric Ormsby, Times Literary Supplement

"Veering between biography, history, journalism and memoir, this painstakingly researched work is a human-scale picture of the generally under-reported history of the Palestinians in Israel as well as an accessible introduction to their poetry. Rather like the poet himself [Muhammad Ali] seems to be, Ms Hoffman's book is unpretentious, principled and utterly charming."--The Economist

"A remarkable book on the life and times of Palestinian poet Taha Muhammad Ali. . . . A triumph of personal empathy and historical insight, and a beacon for anyone who knows that more joins than separates us."--Boyd Tonkin, The Independent

"Author Hoffman has done an admirable job of assembling this life story while it can still be told in the first person."--Saudi Aramco World

"Vivid and intimate, engrossing and full of memorable characters. Every scene [Hoffman] sketches comes alive. . . . Taha Muhammad Ali is fortunate to have had . . . [her to] tell his story with such eloquence."--Haaretz

"In telling the story of Taha Muhammad Ali, Adina Hoffman captures with remarkable sensitivity the sadness, hilarity, mysteries, absurdities, and absences that have made up the life of an extracanonical Palestinian poet. . . . Hoffman's profound identification with Taha reaches to the book's bones. . . . Hoffman's knack for details is astonishing. . . . Hoffman's work is a unique addition to the chronicles of Palestinian ironies in the modern era."--Khaled Furani, Journal of Palestine Studies

"Informative, captivating and fast-moving, this first biography of the Palestinian poet Taha Muhammad Ali (b. 1933) is a true delight to read."--Greta Aart, Cerise Press

"A triumph of sympathetic imagination, dogged research and impassioned writing. More than the story of one man's life [My Happiness] brings to light entire strata of historical and cultural experience that have been neglected or purposefully covered over. For readers of English there is no comparable work."--Robyn Creswell, The National

"That his happiness bears a strong relationship to dispossession and exile makes Israeli Arab poet Taha Muhamad Ali, subject of this luminous biography, an iconic voice of the Palestinian consciousness. . . . Hoffman is a perceptive reader of [Taha Muhammad Ali's] work (which she places in the context of a dynamic Palestinian literary scene), appreciating its formal inventiveness, its dapplings of melancholy and exuberance, and its grounding in the pungent details and vernacular of village life. Looking past the usual strident politics, Hoffman presents readers with a subtle, moving evocation of the human realities of the Palestinian experience, rooted in land and memory."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"[This book] reads like a novel . . . a biography of a Palestinian writer and the sociopolitical events that informed and shaped him as well as a look at Palestinian cultural and literary history. But it is poetry that beats at the book's heart--the way it moves inside of Muhammad Ali, around him, the way it surprises him and questions him as he questions it."--American Scholar

"[Hoffman] has learned the language, prowled civilian and military archives, walked the ground and interviewed countless individuals, probing their memories of cataclysmic events occurring more than a half-century ago. The result is not just a biography of a remarkable man, but a focused history of a region. . . . A lovingly researched, well-rendered portrait."--Kirkus Reviews

"Taha Muhammad Ali's . . . poems show the power of beauty in difficult times in addition to the vivid imagination, humor, and honesty of a storyteller. Biographer, essayist, and literary critic Hoffman masterfully captures the life and work of this highly original poet. An exceptional introduction to a literary world that has, until now, been little known to English-language readers, this is highly recommended for all libraries."--Library Journal

"[A] poignant, persuasive biography."--Choice

"Hoffman's lively, insightful, artistically contextualized portrait of a great and accessible poet provides a corrective perspective on Palestinian culture and offers new evidence of literature's transcendent power."--Booklist (starred review)

Named one of the Top Ten Biographies of 2009 by Booklist

"Rarely as a reader have I experienced a book like this one--and a biography no less! Adina Hoffman's prose is so wonderfully malleable--poetic here, matter-of-fact there--that she not only distills the Palestinian experience of the last hundred years, she moves us and entertains us with the saga of their lives and the intertwined life of the poet, Taha Muhammad Ali. To paraphrase a poem that appears in the Prelude: This story cannot be the story of one man alone; it is the story of his people as a whole. More than a biography, it is the painstaking resurrection of a disappearing world and a tremendous book."--Jeff Waxman, Seminary Coop Bookstore, Chicago (Selected as one of 20 best books of the year)

"This complex, subtle and paradoxically triumphant biography of the poet Taha Muhammad Ali is that rare treasure, an act of literary discovery that is also an act of political resistance."--Tom D'Evelyn, Providence Journal

Selected as one of five "Favorite Books of the Year," Tom D'Evelyn, Providence Journal

"Thanks to Adina Hoffman's biography, readers are now better able to appreciate [Taha Muhammad Ali's] struggle to create literature in circumstances that might otherwise yield only despair."--Scott McLemee, Barnes & Noble Review

Selected by the Editors of the Barnes & Noble Review as one of the Best Books of 2009

Winner of the 2010 Jewish Quarterly Wingate Prize

Winner of the 2013 Windham Campbell Prizes administered by the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University

"Adina Hoffman's portrait of Taha Muhammad Ali brings to life character after character, each one viewed with the author's singular humanity. The poet himself is a figure of great originality and integrity, and his life becomes a mirror of a world which we have glimpsed, until now, largely in broken fragments. I hope this landmark book will be widely, and carefully, read."--W. S. Merwin

"From Adina Hoffman's extraordinary book, I have not only learned about the life of that wise, sweet, cunning, superbly gifted and totally original Palestinian poet, Taha Muhammad Ali, but I have learned--more than ever before--about Jewish and Arab history in Palestine. The book is heartbreaking, riveting, and beautifully written. Moreover it's one of a kind, courageous, and deeply honest."--Gerald Stern, National Book Award-winner for This Time: New and Selected Poems

"Adina Hoffman's writing is historical magic. She relates world-scale political history on a human scale, so that the 'Israeli-Palestinian' conflict is rendered, with clarity and fairness, the story of one family, one village, one exodus, one return. At the end of the day, the meaning of this history is explored and contemplated in the ways a great novel achieves that kind of contemplation. A series of brilliantly told and searing stories, this is at once a page-turner and a book to be savored."--María Rosa Menocal, author of The Ornament of the World

"Reading Adina Hoffman's remarkable book we are consoled that, in the face of terrible brutalities and sufferings, the enduring power of poetry might restore in words--and celebrate--a measure of what has been lost in reality."--Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran

"Adina Hoffman has given us a superbly composed meditation upon memory, truth, and conflict in the Middle East. The texture of her prose, the improbable transformations of key characters, and above all their human depth and complexity, contribute to a luminous portrait of the Palestinian poet Taha Muhammad Ali and of his world. I would place My Happiness Bears No Relation to Happiness among the five 'must read' books on the Israel-Palestine tragedy."--Michael Sells, John Henry Barrows Professor of Islamic History and Literature in the Divinity School, University of Chicago