George Saunders
Author of The Tenth of December and MacArthur Genius Grant Recipient
Book Recommendations:
Recommended by George Saunders
“A stunning, essential, and heartbreaking book that puts a profoundly human face on the suffering of the Palestinian people. This should be required reading for anyone with an interest in the Middle East, which is to say: everyone. Like all Voice of Witness books, Palestine Speaks, uses the grand old tools, presenting beautifully shaped narratives that evoke the reader’s empathy and help him see the connections between himself and the people narrating. The effect is magical and empoweringthe reader feels a sense of connection and warmth, and is thus able to imagine positive outcomes. In other words, to read a Voice of Witness book is to feel one’s habitual sense of disconnection begin to fall away.” (from Amazon)
by Mateo Hoke, Cate Malek·You?
by Mateo Hoke, Cate Malek·You?
The occupation of the West Bank and Gaza has been one of the world’s most widely reported yet least understood human rights crises for over four decades. In this oral history collection, men and women from Palestine—including a fisherman, a settlement administrator, and a marathon runner—describe in their own words how their lives have been shaped by the historic crisis. Other narrators include: ABEER, a young journalist from Gaza City who launched her career by covering bombing raids on the Gaza Strip. IBTISAM, the director of a multi-faith children’s center in the West Bank whose dream of starting a similar center in Gaza has so far been hindered by border closures. GHASSAN, an Arab-Christian physics professor and activist from Bethlehem who co-founded the International Solidarity Movement. For more than six decades, Israel and Palestine have been the global focal point of intractable conflict, one that has led to one of the world’s most widely reported yet least understood human rights crises. In their own words, men and women from West Bank and Gaza describe how their lives have been shaped by the conflict. Here are stories that humanize the oft-ignored violations of human rights that occur daily in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Recommended by George Saunders
“Please read this book. So smart, so timely.” (from Amazon)
by Timothy Snyder·You?
by Timothy Snyder·You?
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “bracing” (Vox) guide for surviving and resisting America’s turn towards authoritarianism, from “a rising public intellectual unafraid to make bold connections between past and present” (The New York Times) “Timothy Snyder reasons with unparalleled clarity, throwing the past and future into sharp relief. He has written the rare kind of book that can be read in one sitting but will keep you coming back to help regain your bearings.”—Masha Gessen The Founding Fathers tried to protect us from the threat they knew, the tyranny that overcame ancient democracy. Today, our political order faces new threats, not unlike the totalitarianism of the twentieth century. We are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. On Tyranny is a call to arms and a guide to resistance, with invaluable ideas for how we can preserve our freedoms in the uncertain years to come.