March 20, 2006

Who are you calling a liar?

There's a bit of a ding-dong going on over at Just Peace with Linda Grant insisting that Karma Nabulsi has invented a chunk of her book that just isn't there.
I am currently dealing with the Guardian's corrections and clarifications. Karma Nabulsi has invented for the purposes of her review a conversation between Samir el Youssef and myself on his experience of visitng his parents village which neither appears in the book, nor took place in real life. The Guardian has had complaints from others who know Samir, about this fictitious exchange and about the overall tone of the review. A correction has been prepared and the Guardian is currently waiting for Karma Nabulsi to explain how this fallacious exchange appeared in her review. Readers can judge for themselves how reliable the rest of it is on this basis. The correction will be inserted onto the review on the website.
I think Karma Nabulsi made an honest mistake based on other things she has heard or read of Linda Grant. In fact I thought I recognised the episode about the return to the parents village but on re-examination I saw that it wasn't as I thought I had remembered it. I still loved the review though, just ignore the last paragraph.

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