A review by foursythia
Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire by Jennifer Bing, Mike Merryman-Lotze, Jehad Abusalim

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

They're not lying when they said or recommend this book as introduction to literature on Palestine and especially Gaza. This is a non-fiction: collection of essays about daily life in Gaza, observations made & experiences lived for years & decades by Gazan voices. It has chapters on Gaza & Palestinians agriculture, architectural design, family life, arts & culture, food and how all that ties to a sense of connection, belonging, and emotional attachment to one's identity as Gazan & Palestinian; one that has been weakening by years as the occupation continues, by intentional effort from Israel to separate Palestine from their identity & who they are. It really makes me think & an eye opener, sure bombs & building collapsing with lives being lost are terribly gruesome. But being tortured, controlled, limited in micro ways for every single day of your life? It felt much worse and sinister, true spirit breaking method, yet Gaza & Palestinians persist. 

If you ever wonder what to start with when it comes to reading books on the matter, please highly consider this one. 

I had a free copy of the ebook on my shelf as well as an audiobook. The quality of the audio and narrator was amazing: I love how I can listen to how the Arab words are pronounced by the narrators, and btw, they have different narrators for each essay piece! The speed was great. A bit too slow for me, but I can always speed it up personally while others with limited English would be able to comprehend it very fine.