Overview

GAZA HELD IN TIME: A TAPESTRY OF TWO LIVES offers a personal and deeply emotional account of life in Gaza, chronicling the experiences of two young individuals before and during the recent conflict. Through alternating narratives, Tareq, who eventually left Gaza, and Yara, who remained, explore themes of survival, displacement, memory, and the enduring human spirit. The authors aim to humanise Gaza beyond news headlines, illustrating the rich cultural fabric of the region and the profound impact of war on daily life, while also challenging readers to remember and engage with their story. 'Written by four hands, from inside and outside Gaza as if a rope also physically kept the two narrators tied together. There is no page that does not simultaneously strike the reader's reason and heart, both in the transmission of pain and injustice and in the memory of a beauty that those who have known Gaza can confirm.' - Patrizia Cecconi, author, Il lungo cammino della Palestina: 1917-2017. 'Tareq AlSourani and Yara Nasser, both still teenagers, provide an extraordinary evocation of the endless fear, loss, humiliation and horror of life in Gaza over the last twenty months. Still in Gaza, Yara's poetry captures the numbness of those managing to survive, like 'dead people walking'. Crossing into Egypt, Tareq expresses the guilt and anguish of escape, while loved others remain.' - Lynne Segal, writer, academic and activist, Birkbeck, University of London, UK.

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9781998309955

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Tareq AlSourani, 17, was born and raised in Gaza City, where he endured the profound pain and hardship of multiple hostilities. Following the latest war on Gaza, six months later, Tareq and his family-his mother and three siblings-left their home, first seeking refuge in Egypt and eventually resettling in Canada. This book marks Tareq's debut as a writer, driven by his belief in the transformative power of storytelling. His writing reflects a deep longing to preserve the truths of his experiences-not just the events themselves but the emotions and lived realities that accompanied them. For Tareq, this book is much more than a chronicle of war. It is a deeply personal homecoming etched onto its pages-a way to express himself from exile while staying intimately connected to the city he was forced to leave. To Tareq, writing is an act of reclamation, both deeply personal and profoundly universal-as he reclaims memory, identity, and hope. Yara Nasser is an 18-year-old writer and student who grew up-and continues to live-in Gaza City, Palestine. She views writing as something akin to a bellybutton, connecting her to a personal identity molded by rupture, resistance, and reflection. Her interest in journalism and literature informs a mode of storytelling and war memorialization concerned less with representation than with witnessing, always seeking to stay as close to reality as possible. For her, writing is not merely catharsis, but a practice of excavation of truth, dignity, selfhood, and interior life in contexts where all are endangered. She writes to explore the emotional weight of survival and the fragile shape of identity. This book marks the beginning of her journey as a writer, but its roots reach far deeper into her lived experience.

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