Born near Nazareth as a Palestinian citizen of Israel, Majeda Awawdeh learns early the limits imposed on her body, her voice and her dreams.


After marrying at just seventeen to escape an increasingly stifling home life and continue her education, Majeda finds herself shouldering the double burden of occupation and patriarchy in another kind of prison. Armed only with singular determination, love for her three young children and passion for learning, she begins to redraw the boundaries of her reality.


In The Sky Is Concave, Majeda recounts her journey through a childhood shaped by civil discrimination and rising religious conservatism to hard-won intellectual, financial and personal freedom as a scholar and award-winning educational entrepreneur in Australia.


Written with fierce, poetic honesty, The Sky Is Concave is a testament to courage and reinvention. It is an unforgettable story of daring to question the limits of your world and reshaping your own sky.


‘Rarely has a memoir held my attention with such magnetic force. By turns heartbreaking and fist-pumping, this rough diamond of a book shimmers with pulsating, page-turning energy. Simply breathtaking.’ CLARE WRIGHT

‘The Sky Is Concave is a story of ultimate courage. Like so many Palestinians, Majeda Awawdeh has endured a life of deprivation and violence. Her story is also one of remarkable success. Majeda’s personal story is inspiration for all of us who seek justice for the Palestinian people.’ TONY BIRCH

‘A powerful, forensic memoir about resisting erasure. Dr Majeda’s story unfolds in stunning, unsparing detail as she outwits and ultimately overcomes the narrowing, violent constraints of patriarchal religion, family, marriage and state power.’ JESS HILL

With the mind of a mathematician, Majeda unpicks the equations that direct the lives of women and girls under siege and maps the counterforces they employ to shape their own futures.’ AMANI HAYDAR

‘What does freedom mean when your body, your land and your faith are all contested? In her memoir, Majeda Awawdeh answers that question with breathtaking honesty. Awawdeh reframes her experience not as victimhood but as survival – of religious patriarchy, colonial violence and the hostile border regimes that police Palestinian bodies. Her migration is no escape; it is an act of radical dissidence and a gift to the generations that follow. Read it. You will cry, you will laugh and you will remember that no woman faces systemic violence alone – not while we still have each other’s stories.’ LUCIA SORBERA

‘Majeda’s storytelling is imbued with humour, wit and sharp political insights, with mathematics serving the purpose of metaphor and structure, allowing Majeda – and us – to make sense of the world. This is a book you will read in one breath.’ LANA TATOUR