Daughters of Palestine

A Memoir in Five Generations

By: Leyla K. King

Narrated by: Leyla K. King, May Kamalick, Samara Naeymi

From Palestine to Texas in 100 years, this epic family tale follows five generations of Christian women as their family’s intimate dramas—full of hope, fear, grief, and joy— play out against a backdrop of violence that would rip them from their homeland.

Leyla King has been a keeper of family stories since long before she sat down across from her grandmother with a tiny cassette tape recorder. And in this beautifully crafted memoir, she braids matriarchal memory into a vivid saga of love and survival as her ancestors flee war and poverty. From Haifa to Ramallah, Damascus, Beirut, and finally Texas, Leyla makes global politics deeply personal as family squabbles, ambition, mental illness, romance, and religion shape their immigrant journey. Narrated in immersive, lyrical vignettes, Daughters of Palestine is both an urgent testimony from Palestinian Christians and a timeless story of resilience.

“We start with laughing now. Now, in the comfort of my own home, with steaming cups of tea before us and the promise of the cookies I made yesterday awaiting us in the kitchen, we share these stories, to be recorded and retained and remembered, with joy and thankfulness. But it wasn’t always that way. There was much suffering, too. To get to this place, this moment, with Leylati, there was first pain and heartache and so much loss. . . . We start with laughing now, but before that, first, there was Za’leh.”

©2025 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (P)2025 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Generations of Narration

I just finished listing to the audible version of Leyla Kamalick King’s new book, Daughters of Palestine. 10 out of 10 would recommend! It was a pleasant surprise to hear not only her, but generations narrating the narrative. It is a rich a deep history of a family’s forced migration out of Palestine. The story starts in the 1920’s before Israel existed, and wraps up in the present day.

Go listen to it asap! 🇵🇸 🍉 ❤️🖤🤍💚

The stories that help us see each others humanity

Rich history of 5 generations of women in one family and their experience with their home in Palestine and living in the diaspora. The author, Leyla King, interviews her family members to learn and record their history. Heartfelt and authentic, this book shares their experience. The author doesn't attempt to explain the entire history of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, but rather weaves some of the history in as she tells her family's story. Much of the narration is by the author herself. These stories are so important in understanding one another, and humanizes the experience of the Palestinian people.

the Habiby family of Palestine

A beautiful narrative of the Habiby family of Palestine- a story of what it means to be a Palestinian Christian family and the leadership it’s women played to nurture and sustain them through the loss of their homeland. Told with warmth and truth.