A review by kamckim
Girl on a Plane by Miriam Moss

4.0

Well, when I picked this one, I had no idea what I was in for. This is a work of fiction based on the true story of the author's experience in the 1970 hijackings of 4 airplanes by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. I learned something completely new. While at first I was worried that the book could be seen as anti-Palestinian, I wanted to learn more about the events that took place. Miriam Moss was on her way to England from Bahrain when the plane was hijacked, refueled in Beirut, and then re-routed to Dawson's Field, an abandoned British airstrip near Zarqa in Jordan. Passengers of this and 2 other planes were held hostage while the PFLP negotiated for the release of political prisoners. I won't tell you the story, as the history is easy to find online. It's part of the events of Black September, a dark period in Jordanian-Palestinian relations. Moss tells the story from the point of view of Anna, and while several of the events in the story actually happened to her, there are details she needed to fill in after 45 years. It's an amazing work of empathy for the writer. In a Q&A at the end of the book, she explains how she felt when talking to the hijackers: "Their stories of suffering and homelessness touched me, made me really think what it might be like to have nothing: no home, no possessions, no country, and no prospect of any of these things in the near future. I couldn't feel empathy with them for putting so many people's lives at risk, but I could feel empathy for their situation as refugees." Both of those feelings are evenly portrayed in this YA novel. It's an amazing read about facing and overcoming fear.