The Lord

By: Soraya Antonius

Published by New York Review of Books, 2025-12-02

In this stunning portrait of Palestinian life before the Nakba, a young man gains renown as a magician of a revolutionary sort—meanwhile evading the British colonialist forces who seek to destroy him and the resistance he represents.

Set in Mandatory Palestine during the 1936 Arab Revolt against the British colonial authorities, The Lord is the story of Tareq, a young man from Jaffa who is capable, or so it seems, of performing Christ-like miracles. It is also the story of Miss Alice Rhodes, an English missionary who teaches Tareq as a boy, and who recounts Tareq's life to a journalist in the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

Considered an unremarkable student by his teachers, Tareq is nevertheless something of a magician. After leaving school, he travels and performs across the country, and soon rumors fly of his incredible feats, from walking through walls to averting storms of locusts to curing olives trees barren of fruit.

Tareq’s performances become increasingly defiant of the British administration as he urges his fellow Palestinians to rise up against their oppressors. This draws the attention of the British chief of intelligence, Challis, who will stop at nothing to crush Tareq and the resistance he stands for.

With The Lord, Soraya Antonius recreates the extraordinary richness and vivacity of Palestinian life before the Nakba, painting a portrait of Palestinian society at once panoramic and intimate. A clear-eyed examination of a chapter of British colonial history that laid the groundwork for the conflicts that continue to rack the Middle East, The Lord remains as timely and poignant now as ever.