A group of disparate individuals find themselves together, each on a personal mission to summit Kilimanjaro. Hailing from Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt and America, the characters test the limits of their physical and emotional strength to prove to themselves and others that they can transcend their strife-ridden histories and start a new, unburdened life.
Arwah' Kilimanjaro (Kilimanjaro Spirits) tackles the intertwined stories of this bevy of seemingly antagonistic characters and, in the process, testifies to the vitality of the human spirit. The novel, written by one of the bestselling authors of the Arab World, was inspired by real-life events when Ibrahim Nasrallah succeeded in summiting Mount Kilimanjaro in January 2014 with a group of volunteers and two Palestinian adolescents who had lost their legs. Echoing Hemingway's Under Kilimanjaro, Nasrallah's work juxtaposes the horrific experiences of its main Palestinian characters, who have lost limbs in an Israeli bombing, with the sombre stories of its characters from other nationalities.