UQP acquires 'Discipline' (formerly entitled 'The Occupation') by acclaimed Palestinian Egyptian Australian author Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah

UQP is delighted to announce that we’ve acquired Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah’s first work of fiction for adults, Discipline (formerly entitled The Occupation). Set during Israel’s May 2021 bombing of Gaza, it focuses on two characters, Ashraf and Hannah, whose lives become intertwined following the arrest of Nabil, an eighteen-year-old Muslim Palestinian boy who is a Year 12 student at Al-Bayinnah Islamic College in Western Sydney. Ashraf is a Muslim Arab academic who sees an opportunity to exploit the situation, and his personal connections to it, to boost his career and find personal redemption after the breakdown of his marriage. Hannah is a young Palestinian journalist struggling to honour the stories of her community while encountering racism in her job, trauma from violence in her homeland, and juggling the demands of motherhood. It’s a novel about the impossibility of attaining justice in a corrupt system, and the costs marginalised groups pay irrespective of whether they comply with or challenge powerful institutions.

UQP has acquired world rights and will publish in September 2025.

Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah says:

Discipline (formerly entitled The Occupation) is a novel about the violence enacted on the marginalised and colonised by people who claim to be “progressive” and on the “left”. It’s about how the tentacles of the billion-dollar global arms, war and Islamophobia industries reach deep into liberal institutions – universities and mainstream media – and the lies and excuses people tell themselves and each other about how far they are prepared to go to speak truth to power.

Publisher Aviva Tuffield says:

As a longtime fan and admirer of Randa Abdel-Fattah’s books for young adults and her nonfiction writing, I am honoured to have the chance to work with her on her first novel for adults. Discipline (formerly entitled The Occupation) is a searing, page-turning satire that examines our current moment through the lens of two of the most contested occupations in Australia right now: academia and the media. It forces the reader to consider: what does courage look like in those institutions, and who is harmed when individual careerism, corporate and governmental co-option, and moral weakness triumph. It is a superbly crafted, unforgettable work of fiction.

About Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah

Randa Abdel-Fattah is the author of twelve books of fiction for young people (across YA, middle grade and a picture book) and her work has been published in over twenty countries with multiple translations. Her debut novel, Does My Head Look Big In This?, was the first young adult novel ever written by a Muslim about a Western Muslim protagonist to be published in the world. Randa’s novel When Michael Met Mina, received international critical acclaim, was published in the US and UK (renamed The Lines We Cross) and translated into Italian, Swedish, German and Polish. It won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Young Adult Fiction 2016 and People’s Choice Award 2016 and was selected as the No.1 recommended book on refugees by School Library Journal, the world's largest reviewer of books, multimedia, and technology for children and teens.

Randa is also the co-editor of Arab Australian Other and the author of Coming of Age in the War on Terror. She is currently an Australian Research Council Future Fellow at Macquarie University and worked previously as a lawyer.

For more information, contact Sarah Valle: sarah.valle@uqp.com.au