What happens when faith in the good disappears? All That’s Left of You by Cherien Dabis answers this with a family story that shows how fragile hope can become when it is repeatedly tested over decades. The story begins in the West Bank in 1988. Noor, a young protester, is seriously injured. This single moment forces his mother, Hanan, to confront a past that has been silenced for too long. A past that explains how their family ended up at a point where pain and resistance define their lives.

Her narrative takes us back to 1948, to Jaffa. Noor’s grandfather, Sharif, refuses to leave his home and the orange grove, even as the world around him crumbles. War, displacement, and imprisonment tear the family apart; his son Salim grows up far from home, living a life shaped by longing for a place he never truly knew, yet that means everything to him.

The story shows how trauma is passed down and how resistance grows quieter or louder depending on the generation carrying it. It reveals how the choices of those who came before continue to live on in the bodies of those who follow, and how families strive not to pass their fractures forward, even when the world around them leaves little room for healing.

And in the quiet moments of reflection, the parents ask themselves, have we made a mistake?