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Reviews tagging 'Death'
Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear: Poems from Gaza by Mosab Abu Toha
44 reviews
bladelikesbooks's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.0
In this book - partially a collection of poems, partially interview answers - Abu Toha tells us of his personal life experience from a young age to present times.
Abu Toha’s writing is very beautiful and incredibly easy to follow (which i greatly appreciate). His writing show his faily life living in refugee camps in Gaza and the true horror of it, while also showing the beauty of his country, community, and religion.
I really enjoyed the interview protion of this book as i was able to understang his use of poetry better. Abu Toha’s has lived through so many attacks from Israel that he just cobsiders it a part of his daily routine which is so horrifying and sad.
I think this collection gives such good insight into daily life in Gaza and generational trauma. If you’re looking to learn more about the Palestinian people’s experienced of life in Gaza, or you’re looking into poetry that’s easy to follow, definitely check out this book:))
TWs - Blood; Body Horror; Bombing; Child Death (Graphic); Colonisation; Corpses; Covid; Death; Ethnic Cleansing; Genocide; Grief; Loss Of A Loved One; Medical Content; Medical Trauma; Murder; Violence; War
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Violence, Child death, Body horror, Colonisation, Grief, Murder, and War
Moderate: Blood
Minor: Medical content and Medical trauma
serendipitysbooks's review
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
hings You May Find Hidden in My Ear could be described as eye-opening - but only to anyone who has been living under a rock and somehow managed to avoid all of the images coming out of Gaza in the past couple of months. What it is is heart-wrenching and powerful, an indication of how conflict and violence in the region have impacted the poet, first as a child, then a young man, and later as a father. What should be unimaginable was his everyday reality before he was able to leave. Highly recommended - for both the poetry and the political context.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Colonisation, and War
careinthelibrary's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
I thought this was great. The poet wrote in such a sensory way that I felt drawn into the space he created. The smells, sensations, sounds. There's a poem that references teeth chattering that I really felt, for example. Small but mighty.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Genocide, Violence, Colonisation, Death, Gun violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and War
cleansetolovers's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
This debut collection absolutely blew me away. Toha’s gift for verse is unparalleled. It is a sad, beautiful, horrifying, wonderful look at his life in Gaza, first, as a child and then a father. I’m gonna be thinking about these pieces for a long time, and the interview at the end really helped tie the poetry together. I am normally not much of a poetry person, but this really is causing me to reevaluate my relationship to the genre. A true must read during these horrifying times.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Confinement, Death, and Genocide
puttingwingsonwords's review
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.5
This was my main read for #ReadPalestineWeek. I also finished the Activestills book I was already reading, which I posted about previously, and started Freedom Is a Constant Struggle by Angela Davis.
Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear is an impressive poetry collection about life in Palestine, and specifically Gaza.
‘In Gaza, / breathing is a task, / smiling is performing / plastic surgery / on one’s own face / and rising in the morning, / trying to survive / another day, is coming back / from the dead.’
Abu Toha’s poetry zooms in on mundane things and shows how they are twisted in a life under occupation and under siege; but also how they are a source of beauty, however small.
‘Through it all, the strawberries have never stopped growing.’
Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear is an impressive poetry collection about life in Palestine, and specifically Gaza.
‘In Gaza, / breathing is a task, / smiling is performing / plastic surgery / on one’s own face / and rising in the morning, / trying to survive / another day, is coming back / from the dead.’
Abu Toha’s poetry zooms in on mundane things and shows how they are twisted in a life under occupation and under siege; but also how they are a source of beauty, however small.
‘Through it all, the strawberries have never stopped growing.’
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation and Death
Moderate: Child death, Violence, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Medical content
freckled_frog_boi's review against another edition
“On a starless night,
I toss and turn.
The earth shakes, and
I fall out of bed.
I look out my window. The house
next door no longer
stands. It’s lying like an old carpet
on the floor of the earth,
trampled by missiles, fat slippers
flying off legless feet.
I never knew my neighbors still had that small TV,
that the old painting still hung on their walls,
that their cat had kittens.”
I toss and turn.
The earth shakes, and
I fall out of bed.
I look out my window. The house
next door no longer
stands. It’s lying like an old carpet
on the floor of the earth,
trampled by missiles, fat slippers
flying off legless feet.
I never knew my neighbors still had that small TV,
that the old painting still hung on their walls,
that their cat had kittens.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Colonisation, and Genocide
savvylit's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear is both a lament for and an ode to Gaza and its people. Mosab Abu Toha's words are searing, gorgeous, and absolutely devastating. Starting with his childhood and ending with his current status as father to young children, Abu Toha portrays life in Gaza in such an evocative manner that his simultaneous grief and pride over being Palestinian practically leaps off the page.
As I often feel about poetry, why try and describe how beautiful his words are when I can just quote the author himself?
"In Gaza,
As I often feel about poetry, why try and describe how beautiful his words are when I can just quote the author himself?
"In Gaza,
breathing is a task,
smiling is performing
plastic surgery
on one's own face,
and rising in the morning,
trying to survive
another day, is coming back
from the dead."
"And when we die, our bones will continue to grow, to reach and intertwine with the roots of the olive and orange trees, to bathe in the sweet Yaffa sea. One day, we will be born again when you're not there. Because this land knows us. She is our mother. When we die, we're just resting in her womb until the darkness is cleared."
"And when we die, our bones will continue to grow, to reach and intertwine with the roots of the olive and orange trees, to bathe in the sweet Yaffa sea. One day, we will be born again when you're not there. Because this land knows us. She is our mother. When we die, we're just resting in her womb until the darkness is cleared."
Mosab's home in Gaza was recently destroyed during the ongoing genoc!dal siege. Then, just last week, he was separated from his family and beaten and detained by Israeli forces. He has since been reunited with his family. I don't pray but I'm hoping that Mosab and family can remain physically safe. And with every ounce of my soul, I am wishing for a complete ceasefire and a Free Palestine.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, War, Genocide, Violence, Murder, and Grief
itsinthewords's review
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
5.0
This is a wonderful collection of poetry focused on Abu Tohab's life experience as a child and adult in Gaza. You feel the contrast of the casualness of the violence witnessed there while never losing the sight of how horrific it is. It also showcases how violence doesn't have to be physical. It highlights the resilience forced on the Palestinian people by the circumstance he and others of his generation have been born into, mourning a life they hope to return to but are losing the memory of as time goes on. It's heartbreaking and hopeful and beautiful in its construction.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Child death, and War
yourbookishbff's review
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear, by Mosab Abu Toha, feels like it was written yesterday, and the continued relevancy of this collection is what makes it so gut-wrenching to read. A Palestinian poet born in and currently living in Gaza, Toha recounts first-hand experiences living through Israeli attacks. Some occur during prolonged conflicts - like those in 2014 or 2021 - and other incidents are described as the routine occurrences of violence in occupied Gaza. The incessant sound of drones, the constant threat of aerial attack, the accessibility of the beach to Israeli naval patrols - all are woven together in a net of surveillance that shadows day-to-day life. Toha's voice is reflective and unfiltered as it drifts between memories of family and images of leveled homes, reflections on ancestry and odes to death. As we bear witness to the horrors of occupation and ethnic cleansing in 2023, I am haunted by Toha's plea in US and THEM: "I want to build my house on a swing. / I don't want to walk on this earth"
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, War, and Death
sophiareads_'s review
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and War
Moderate: Death and Colonisation