Diana Abu-Jaber’s elegiac novel is set in the mid-1990s during the negotiations that would result in the historic Israeli-Palestinian Peace Accords.

Gabriel Hamdan has been summoned back to Jordan after a 30-year absence. He and his wife live in the United States with their daughter, Amani, but when he is asked to participate in a fencing match at King Hussein’s 60th birthday festivities, he quickly agrees. The two men, who had fenced in school together, are to recreate a match from that bygone era --- though it is understood that “the King always wins.”

"FENCING WITH THE KING...builds to an unforgettable denouement that juxtaposes the tragedies of inheritance and displacement."

Meanwhile, Amani, a poet and professor who is trying to find her footing after her recent divorce, is excited to make the trip with her father and learn about her family’s heritage. Gabe’s older brother, Hafez, an important government functionary and advisor to the King, has arranged everything for their visit. However, there’s animosity between the brothers that centers on a precious heirloom that Gabe’s father gave to him rather than to his older son. Hafez also talks disparagingly of his mother, who “went a bit mad,” he suggests to Amani.

As Amani tries to learn more about her grandmother, a Palestinian refugee who came to the country during the First World War, family secrets are exposed, for which a price must be exacted.

Abu-Jaber beautifully captures the essence of Jordan, poised as it is between modernity and ancient ways, where cars and Bedouin carriages exist side by side, just as modern cities give way to endless deserts. The depiction of Jordanian society, where rumors fly even when they’re known to be untrue, is fascinating. Though FENCING WITH THE KING starts slowly, it builds to an unforgettable denouement that juxtaposes the tragedies of inheritance and displacement.