I was born in a refugee camp in Gaza, into a family that came from al-Jura, a small fishing village on the Mediterranean that stopped existing in 1948. The sea has followed my family ever since, in our stories, our losses and our longing.

For more than twenty years I have worked with people living through war, displacement, crisis and climate change, in over thirty countries, as a researcher and policy analyst. My work has centred on gender equality, on the people most often left out, and on how climate change is reshaping the lives of farmers, families and whole communities, often the same people already carrying the weight of poverty and conflict. I have sat with mothers, farmers, children and refugees, and I have carried their stories with me. Now I live in Oslo, and I write.

Cafe of Thoughts is where I share my writing. I write novels about love, exile, family and the things we keep and lose, and non-fiction about the artists who shaped how a region felt and spoke. My work in research, policy and climate change often finds its way into the pages, less as argument and more as the world my characters live in.

Pull up a chair. Stay a while.