Daybreak in Gaza

About the Book

‘A city so rich in trees it looks like a cloth of brocade spread out upon the land.’  Shamsaddin al-Dimashqi, geographer (1256–1327)

This is Gaza – a place of humanity and creativity, rich in culture and industry. A place now utterly devastated, its entire population displaced by a seemingly endless onslaught, its heritage destroyed.

Daybreak in Gaza is a record of an extraordinary place and people, and of a culture preserved by the people themselves. Vignettes of artists, acrobats, doctors, students, shopkeepers and teachers offer stories of love, life, loss and survival. They display the wealth of Gaza’s cultural landscape and the breadth of its history.

Daybreak in Gaza humanises the people dismissed as statistics. It stands as a mark of resistance to the destruction and as a testament to the people of Gaza.

About the Editor(s)

Mahmoud Muna is a writer, publisher and bookseller from Jerusalem, Palestine. He runs Jerusalem’s celebrated Educational Bookshop and the Bookshop at the American Colony Hotel, both centres of the city’s literary scene. Muna is active in many cultural initiatives across Palestine and published the first Arabic edition of Granta magazine.

Matthew Teller is a UK-based writer and broadcaster. He has written on the Middle East for the BBC, Guardian, Independent, Times, Financial Times and has produced documentaries for BBC Radio 4 and World Service. Teller is the author of Nine Quarters of Jerusalem: A New Biography of the Old City, which was a 2022 Telegraph Book of the Year. www.matthewteller.com.

Juliette Touma is Director of Communications for UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, covering Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. Touma travels frequently to Gaza from UNRWA’s headquarters in Amman, Jordan.

Jayyab Abusafia is a London-based journalist from Jabalia refugee camp in the north of Gaza. He was formerly Sky News Arabia’s senior reporter in London and a senior news presenter at Alghad TV.

Reviews

‘An extraordinary, vital, urgent book.’
The Guardian

‘This is a book that carries the promise of a new day, or a dawning – a book that looks forward, but does so also by looking back over 4,000 years of history. [Daybreak in Gaza] is a collection of brave, resilient, heartbreaking, defiant, scared stories. … If this extraordinary volume tells us anything, it is that Gaza and Palestine will endure, the monuments will be restored and one day Palestinians will again watch the day break in peace.’
The Spectator

‘Daybreak in Gaza is therefore an important attempt to preserve a culture under attack and will be an early contribution to a body of literature that will likely be studied for decades to come.’
Middle East Eye

‘Daybreak in Gaza seeks to push back against the dehumanization at the heart of the Gaza genocide by illuminating the human spirit of a place under attack.’
Mondoweiss

‘This astonishing book opened my eyes to the brutality that is being visited upon Gaza, and to the humanity of those suffering it. I hope we can all learn something – about steadfastness, about dignity – from them. Please read it.’
Brian Eno

‘A necessary, profoundly moving collection. At once a lyrical overview of a rich cultural landscape, and a devastating indictment of genocide, and of culture’s destruction.'
China Miéville

'Heartbreaking and inspiring. Daybreak in Gaza is a necessary, intelligent call to intellectual arms and proof that hope is still possible.'
Alberto Manguel

‘A most significant collection, one that frightens, awes and inspires, the timeliest of reminders of our common humanity and the irrepressible force of the written word.’
Philippe Sands

‘These authors’ lives have been utterly devastated, but we can preserve their vital voices. Daybreak in Gaza must be shared with the world.’
Fatima Bhutto

'Essential reading … a roar of fury and a cry for compassion.’
Suad Amiry

‘A love letter to Gaza. A heartbreaking testament to the beauty and courage of Palestinian people in the face of extraordinary brutality.’
Isabella Hammad

‘[Daybreak in Gaza paints] a picture that eviscerates media stereotypes of Gaza as a valueless slum, offering heartwarming – and heartbreaking – glimpses of Palestinian humanity amid the horror.'
This Week in Palestine

‘Read this. It is brutal with human pain and still, beauty, and life. Defiant life. Resistance. And, bitterly, the injustice of it all. You cannot walk away from Daybreak in Gaza unchanged. It will break your heart; but our hearts need to be broken.’
Harare Review of Books

‘A book about hope, anger and anguish.’
Qantara