Gaza: The Story of a Genocide is an urgent and powerful collection of personal testimony, poetry, art, and frontline reportage. Together, these works bear witness to the vast and ongoing destruction inflicted on the Palestinian people—their lives, their land, and their future.Ahmed Alnaouq recounts the devastating loss of twenty-one family members. Noor Alyacoubi offers a searing reflection on starvation. Mariam Barghouti examines the brutality of Israeli settler violence in the West Bank, while Eman Bashir describes the phenomenon of a “wounded child, no surviving family.” These voices, among many others, illuminate the enduring psychological, physical, and generational toll of state violence.With contributions from recipients of the Palestine Book Award, Arab American Book Award, Pulitzer Prize, Emmy Award, National Book Award, and Gandhi Peace Award, this collection also honors the late poet Hiba Abu Nada—killed in an Israeli airstrike on her home in Khan Younis, Gaza, on October 20, 2023.All royalties will be donated directly to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. What People Are Saying "An absolutely vital compendium of intellectual and emotional scholarship about not only the ongoing grotesquerie of crimes committed against the Palestinian people, but the very nature of colonialism and apartheid. There is so much incisive, fearless and honest writing here, but also immense beauty of language, immense humanity. This is a landmark anthology." Omar El Akkad, author of One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This "This book offers a glimpse into the way this genocide is changing who we are as Palestinians and the way that it is molding our view of ourselves and of the world around us. The Nakba of 1948 was a formative point in the development of modern Palestinian identity. Even for the Palestinians born after the Nakba, we were raised to see this event as the worst moment of our lives and that we as individuals and as a people should strive to overturn that catastrophic moment. The genocide in Gaza is a historical event of equal magnitude that will reshape Palestinian identity for generations to come." Ghassan Abu-Sittah, co-author of Reconstructing the War Injured Patient "This absorbing collection uses—to remarkable effect—a variety of forms and voices to convey the devastating reality of Gaza." Kamila Shamsie, author of Home Fire "This book comes at a time when so many feel there are no more words left to describe the second Nakba unfolding in Gaza. Yet every writer in these pages reminds us that there are words still to speak, and silence is not an option. Enraged, defiant, mournful, and yes, hopeful, the writings in Gaza shed light on a world devouring itself with astonishing cruelties. To read this magnificent, wide-ranging book is an act of reclamation of the dead, of the still living, and those yet to be born in Gaza." Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King, finalist for the Booker Prize "The horror is real. As this book shows, so is the commitment to fighting it." Benjamin Moser, author of Sontag: Her Life and Work "The ongoing horror of the Palestinian genocide in Gaza, undertaken by Israel and abetted by the United States, livestreamed and posted 24/7 for the uncaring world to see, remains difficult to fully comprehend. So perhaps it is best then, whenever possible, to give Palestinians a voice. Here then is Gaza: The Story of a Genocide, with contributions from some of the greatest Palestinian and Arab writers working today, including Mosab Abu Toha, Susan Abulhawa, Omar Barghouti, Huda J. Fakhreddine, Lina Mounzer, and Mary Turfah." Lit Hub’s Most Anticipated Books of 2025 "Editors Fatima Bhutto and Sonia Faleiro present twenty contributions from a wide range of Palestinian perspectives — poets and writers, doctors and academics, artists and organizers…The contributors bear witness to unspeakable brutality and callousness and disregard for human life. Yet somehow, as the writer Eman Basher notes in her essay, Gaza is a place where hope is the ultimate act of defiance." Brian Tanguay, California Review of Books "This haunting and informative collection of personal accounts, reporting, poetry, art, and photographs by prominent Palestinian writers and artists fills in the backstory of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza and provides some unexpected perspectives." Booklist "Journalists and Books for Gaza cofounders Bhutto and Faleiro bring together a ‘record of the human toll’ of Israel’s genocide in Palestine in this arresting anthology. The collection contains a moving mix of history, personal essay, and poetry on what contributor Yara Hawari describes as ‘one of the most brutal assaults on human life in recent history’…a maddening glimpse of the massacre unfolding in real time." Publishers Weekly
