After reading The Catcher in the Rye, he discovered a passion for books and began writing himself, primarily about the Arabic narrative in a Jewish country. Kashua wrote with the goal of creating a more equal Israel.[11] His first novel, Dancing Arabs (2002), tells the story of a nameless Arab-Israeli attending an elite Jewish boarding school and code-switching between Arab and Jewish identities in an attempt to fit in.[12] These semi-autobiographical themes of identity and in-betweenness, often packaged in the tragic comedy genre, became hallmarks of Kashua’s writing. Throughout the years, Kashua’s fiction often uses stereotypical characters — caricatures of Jewish- and Arab-Israelis — to both foster familiarity with his audience and subvert the perception of these identities in real life.[13]