In 1948, Raja Shehadehs Palestinian family was one of many driven from their homes when Israel defeated the Arab armies arrayed against it. Shehadehs early childhood in the rural hills of the West Bank was marked by his familys sense of loss and impermanence, vividly evoked by the distant glittering lights of Jaffa he watched each night. An artful meditation on the meaning of time and place, Strangers in the House offers a unique perspective on decades of daily life under military occupation. Its also a story of the tensions between an idealistic son and a political activist father: Raja Shehadehs father was ostracized by his fellow Arabs for advocating a peaceful two-state solution.