We are very grateful to the National Book Award for its recognition of this literary work of non fiction.
The book is a collection of testimonies of the massacres in Gaza by its victims.

Many thanks to its UK Publisher, Fitzcarraldo, and its US Publisher Other Press, for bringing it into existence in the English speaking world.

This is the third time Samar Yazbek and Leri Price are longlisted together to the National Book Award.

The short list will be announced on October 6th.

SOME PRESS

“[Yazbek] is widely regarded as one of the most important voices documenting conflict in the Middle East today. Her latest work…is a vital, harrowing document…a human portrait of one of the most devastating military offensives in recent history.”
—The Mirror

“Yazbek documents humanity at both its most broken and most resilient…This is not an easy book to read, but it is an essential one.”
—Buzz Magazine

“These testimonies from Palestinians living in Gaza are important reading; the cumulative effect of encountering them in one place is also utterly devastating.”
—Words Without Borders

“A vital reminder of the ongoing genocide and the almost unimaginable extent of its human costs.”
—Bookblast

“It is a searing read, very moving both in the piety so often saving the sanity of these casualties of appalling vengeance, and in their hope for a future.”
—The Tablet

“A harrowing book, at once a work of remembrance and a plea for justice.”
—Telerama

“Despite all the horrific descriptions, this is above all a book about humanity, about people who, despite their immeasurable suffering, fight for their own lives and the lives of others, and even retain a glimmer of hope. Giving their voices a public restores a
measure of dignity to these Palestinians.”
—Deutschlandfunk Kultur

“A Syrian author becomes the voice of Gaza’s survivors… bringing narrative empathy and urgency… aiming to transcend political discourse and bear witness to extreme brutality”
—Le Monde

“What elevates the book from a mere catalog of horrors is the profound psychological resilience exhibited by the survivors.”
—Streamline

“Yazbek’s collection of testimonies, spanning the shattered lives of children as young as thirteen to the weary wisdom of the elderly, refutes the diminishment intended by the airdropped leaflets. If the leaflets claim their presence is a danger, Yazbek proves their erasure is the true catastrophe.”
—ArabLit

“A slim book that’s certain to break you, but then it should… Yazbek’s journalism is likely to become a historical document of this cruel campaign of criminal carnage unleashed on a people.”
—Irish Independent

“This is a remarkable, shattering book that holds its voices with dignity and care.”
—A.L. Kennedy, author of Alive in the Merciful Country

“A work of profound ethical significance, a direct offering of words from voices that should never be silenced.”
—Preti Taneja, author of Aftermath