Daybreak in Gaza

Stories of Palestinian Lives and Culture

‘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 was Gaza. A place of humanity and creativity, rich in culture and industry. A place now pulverised and devastated, its entire population displaced by a seemingly endless onslaught. 

Today, as its heritage is being destroyed, Gaza’s survivors preserve their culture through literature, music, stories and memories. Daybreak in Gaza is a record of that heritage, revealing an extraordinary place and people. Vignettes of artists, acrobats, doctors, students, shopkeepers and teachers across the generations offer stories of love, life, loss and survival. They display the wealth of Gaza’s cultural landscape and the breadth of its history.

This remarkable book humanises the people dismissed as mere statistics and portrays lives full of joy and meaning. Daybreak in Gaza stands as a mark of resistance to the destruction, and as a testament to the people of Gaza.

'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