LONGLISTED FOR A NATIONAL BOOK AWARDA Palestinian prisoners memoir of thirty years captivity and a love letter to the wall that encircles and comforts him This is the story of a wall that somehow chose me as the witness of what it said and didNasser Abu Srour grew up in a refugee camp in the West Bank on the outskirts of Bethlehem. As a child he played in its shadow and explored the little world within the camp. As he grew older he began questioning the boundaries that limited his existence. Later sentenced to life in prison with no hope of parole he found himself surrounded by a physical wall.This is the story of how over thirty years in captivity he crafted a new definition of freedom. Turning to writings by philosophers as varied as Derrida Kirkegaard and Freud he begins to let go of freedom as a question that demanded an answer in order to preserve it as a dream. The wall becomes his stable point of reference his anchor both physically and psychologically.As each year brings with it new waves of releases of prisoners he dares to hope and seeks refuge in the wall when these hopes are dashed. And in a small miracle he finds love with a lawyer from the outside while in her absence the wall is his solace and his curse.A testimony of how the most difficult of circumstances can build a person up instead of tearing them down The Tale of a Wall is an extraordinary record of the vast confinement and power of the mind.