Atef Abu Saif is a Palestinian author who lives and works in Gaza’s Jabaliya refugee camp. He is one of six authors shortlisted for this year’s International Prize for Arabic Fiction (known as the “Arabic Booker”). Atef was born in Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip in1973. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Birzeit and a masters’ degree from Bradford. Recently, he received his Ph.D. in political and social sciences from the European University Institute in Florence. He is the author of four novels: Shadows in the Memory (1997), The Tale of the Harvest Night (1999), Snowball (2000), and The Salty Grape of Paradise (2003 & 2006). He has published a collection of short stories entitled Everything is Normal and is also author of Civil Society and the State: Theoretical Perspective with Particular Reference to Palestine (2005). He is a regular contributor to several Palestinian and other Arabic language newspapers, journal and literary supplements.