

"Everything about their story intrigued me. "When I came upon the story of Rami and Bassam, I had to admit that I was confused by the politics of Israel and Palestine," McCann remembers. United by grief after their young daughters were killed (Rami's murdered by a suicide bomber and Bassam's shot dead by Israeli forces), they find some solace from these tragedies in each other. But its very title alone – apeirogon is a mathematical term for a shape with an infinite number of sides – that challenges us to think about the nuance of the conflict, its contradictions, its ironies and its pain.Īt its heart are two real-life men – a Palestinian, Bassam Aramin, and an Israeli, Rami Elhanan. He knows that people have entrenched ideas about the settings and people he celebrates, mourns, depicts and ponders. We – and let me say, mea culpa – often go into places we shouldn't go and we condescend. We patronise. We steal.

Cultural appropriation is a very real thing.
