Every Moment Is a Life - by Susan Abulhawa (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Compiled by bestselling author susan abulhawa, an Arabic-English bilingual anthology of essays from eighteen young Palestinian writers trying to survive the genocide in Gaza.

In early 2024, writer and activist susan abulhawa managed to enter Gaza twice through the Rafah crossing. There, at the Culture and Free Thought Association, susan held a series of workshops for young people who had been displaced to tent encampments. The lives of all participants were marked by unrelenting Israeli violence and extraordinary loss--of home, family, safety, education, electricity, and all the structures of life. They'd fled from place to place as Israel's colonial violence swirled around them, complete with food and water insecurity and constant threat. Still, despite the bitterness of life in tents and the dangers of travel, they came together to share in the refuge of writing and community.

Samya recounts a tender moment with an old man mending shoes in the street, while her cousin Saja hides books in her closet, hoping they and her home will still be there when she returns. Ghassan is haunted by the baby he rescued from the rubble, who for a time became his son. Fatima risks it all retrieve her clothes from a danger zone buzzing with drones and warplanes. Maram's loving aunt is gone, and chaos inhabits Amr's mind. Samah, Lubna, Rizq, and Nebal take us by the hand through raining death, trails of tears, classroom shelters, and shared clothes in crowded tents.

Every Moment Is a Life delivers rare, unfiltered portraits of life under genocide, platforming the emerging voices struggling to survive in Gaza today. These essays are raw and real, capturing human moments--buying bread, going to the bathroom, sharing a meal, drinking coffee--all set against the backdrop of history's first livestreamed ethnic cleansing. With courage, anger, love, agony, and--impossibly--hope, these achingly tender voices from Gaza will stay with us, captured in these pages, forever.

*All proceeds go back to the contributors in Gaza and to Palestine Writes Literature Festival

Review Quotes

"Every Moment is a Life marks a monumental work of witness, solidarity and love amidst total horror. Editors susan abulhawa and Huzama Habayeb, both spectacular writers themselves, have compiled a vital account of what two years of genocide actually means, not in some abstract geopolitical sense, but directly from the people who have had to live through this evil. The stories here, detailed and fully felt in a way only lived experience allows, are of survival, of strength, of the most fundamental humanness in the face of every conceivable indignity. It is impossible to read this anthology and not come away rearranged."
--Omar El-Akkad, National Book Award winner of One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

"A poignant, searing collection that captures not only the unbearable reality of Palestinians living through genocide, but also their feelings, memories, hopes, and thoughts. Each essay bears witness in its own way - raw, intimate, and impossible to forget. I often read in tears, gripped by experiences that reach far beyond what images or headlines can convey."
--Mahmoud Khalil

"This stunning anthology offers readers an intimate glimpse of life in Gaza from the voices experiencing the genocide firsthand. Insisting on the continuance of life, breath by breath and line by line, these writers narrate the unfathomable and emerge defiant, despite the "terrifying blast of shelling and the crash of collapsing buildings." What makes this collection singular is its preservation of Arabic alongside English. The languages breathe together, holding the urgent, necessary voices within. These stories demand reckoning, particularly from Western audiences. Everyone must read Every Moment Is a Life."
--Noor Hindi, author of Dear God. Dear Bones. Dear Yellow and co-editor of Heaven Looks Like Us: A Palestinian Poetry Anthology

"Susan Abulhawa, a world-class writer and exemplary literary citizen, has broken through the walls of censorship to bring the voices of Gaza to the English speaking world. In these deeply personal stories, Palestinians tell us what it is like to live through the mass murder and wanton destruction imposed by Israel on Gaza. The writings are detailed, specific in their renderings of the daily cataclysm. From sleeping with strangers, the frailty of tents, the sounds of killing, the fear and then reality of endless loss, from the indignity of over-crowded latrines, to panic of dreams, these writers bravely document their memories, desires, transitions from comfort to deprivation, the importance of a cup of coffee, of a memento of a previous life, of the recollection of a hope. A frontline teacher, Abulhawa makes describing the impossible, doable, and the world is made more intelligent by this massive accomplishment."
--Sarah Schulman, author of The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity

"Every Moment is a Life lives up to its title. The book presents the reader with the sort of life experiences that make one marvel at the immense dignity and strength that Gaza has become synonymous with. Each one of the moments described there is an indictment of Israel's vicious war endured by the civilians in Gaza."
--Raja Shehadeh, author of Palestinian Walks and Forgotten

"Writing in a time of death seems like a necessary means of survival. It is a hand extended from under the rubble, a hand that tells us, with its remaining fingers, that they are resisting death. In this writing, we see what the cameras didn't see, hear what the journalists didn't say, and remember what the world has forgotten, or has chosen to ignore, of a simple tormented beauty that wants to tell us nothing more than, 'we are here ... we are here'."
--Ibrahim Nasrallah, winner of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction

About the Author

susan abulhawa is a Palestinian American writer and political activist. She is the author of Mornings in Jenin--translated into thirty languages--and The Blue Between Sky and Water. Born to refugees of the Six Day War of 1967, she moved to the United States as a teenager, graduated in biomedical science, and established a career in medical science. In July 2001, abulhawa founded Playgrounds for Palestine, a non-governmental children's organization dedicated to upholding the Right to Play for Palestinian children. She lives in Pennsylvania.

Palestine Writes is the only North American literature festival dedicated to celebrating and promoting cultural productions of Palestinian writers and artists. Palestine Writes brings Palestinian cultural workers from all parts of historic Palestine and the diaspora together with peers from other marginalized groups in the United States. Crossing multiple borders--geographic, linguistic, and cultural boundaries--writers, artists, publishers, booksellers, scholars, musicians, and thinkers hold conversations about art, literature, and the intersections between culture and power, politics, climate change, sexuality, human rights, and more. Palestine Writes showcases brilliant voices devoted to the belief that art challenges repression and creates bonds between Palestine and the rest of the world.