This is a fascinating collection of essays and short poems by a number of writers from Gaza.

After a riveting first chapter from Refaat Alareer (may he rest in peace), the first third of the book covers some personal stories and reflections: the use of cellphones, agriculture, temporality. The second third of the book leans into infrastructure: experimental residential design, electrification, AI as a tool for fighting the occupation, and more. The last third leans more into the social/cultural side of the Gazan experience, and I found it much more compelling. We hear about one author's attempt to build a public library in Gaza, as he tells us about film, journalism, theater, and more; another woman tells about the crushing weight of being left behind as her whole family moved to Egypt for a better life; one man tells his experience of the 2014 War; etc. The final chapter offers three possibilities for Gaza (and Palestine more broadly): the no-state solution, the two-state solution, and the one-state solution, and the author offers a riveting case for a multi-confessional, multi-ethnic, secular, and democratic Palestine. Between the chapters are poems and photographs.

The second third of the book, on infrastructure, gave me a much more human, detailed angle on what I hear about all the time: the collapse of material life in Gaza due to the genocide, although it felt much more slow-going than the rest of the book.

If there is one stand-out chapter, it's Israa Mohammed Jamal's "Let Me Dream": it's such a touching, emotionally driven piece of writing.