Reviews the book, Suicide in Palestine: Narratives of Despair by Nadia Taysir Dabbagh (see record 2005-06820-000). On the basis of the author's dissertation research, Suicide in Palestine: Narratives of Despair is a multidisciplinary study of the public health problem of suicide, the first in-depth study of suicidal behavior in the Arab world. It is an ambitious effort, combining an analysis of historical and religious context, a sociological study of suicide during an 18-month period in the late 1990s, and a review of 31 case studies in depth. The author's goals are to understand the "suicide phenomenon"--a reported increase in suicides that occurred in Palestine in the late 1990s--and to hear "the voices of the powerless, the disappointed and the dispossessed" (p. vi). The topics discussed in this review include: historical, cultural, and religious context; the statistics of suicide; the stories of young Palestinians who attempted suicide; and the politics of suicide.