Full disclosure, I did not finish Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire edited by Jehad Abusalim, Jennifer Bing and Mike Merryman-Lotze. I did read a few of the essays in full, a few I skimmed and one was mostly read. There are around five or so poems, but they did not “pop” for me.
There are a handful of photographs and each essay covers events, detailed facts and much more. It is a technical read a lot of the time. While the publisher’s description says it is a “Palestinian vision of what a future Gaza could be,” I was reading mostly the past. There was some present (up to about 2021), but I was reading about the 1948 to around 2015 (with some “now”). The essays I appreciated were the two that were trying to show the humanity of the Palestinian people, and how the boycotts and Israeli government has affected their day to day lives.
One such essay was about a teacher and his students. When they first started Oliver Twist, Fagin was just the “evil Jewish villain” until they started to see how he was human, and how the times, prejudices and such were shaping him. He became relatable. The same happened with Shylock and Shakespeare. The other talks about such things as how Gaza in 2021 had 13 hospitals for around 2 million people; how the boycotts affect not just the health care, but the drinking water or lack thereof, education, and things like trying to get to Jerusalem could take months if not years to get permission to do, and then the humiliations they would endure in that process. In this one there is also a “what could be” if certain events are taken and give some possible futures.
If you are looking for something that is Palestinian leaning, or looking for something that is non-fiction, this might be the book for you. It is not for kids or even most teens, but could be used for higher level high school seniors to college students, and for those of us beyond traditional schooling.