As of my writing of this review, Reuters estimates that 50,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since October 2023. UNRWA estimates that nearly 2 million — 90% of the Palestinian population — have been displaced, many of whom have been displaced multiple times. The scale of loss is hard to fathom, hard to conceptualize. Reading personal accounts from people who have had to flee their homes with only what they can carry, not knowing if they will ever return; people who have watched their loved ones be grievously wounded or killed; people who don’t know the fate of their family and friends and neighbors; and people who have written their experiences and were themselves killed before their writing could be published — reading all of this brings a vital ground-level account to those of us in far away countries who go about our daily lives and only occasionally hear news of what continues to happen in Gaza.

This book features an array of voices and styles, writers with different backgrounds, of different ages. It is an incredibly difficult book to read, but it is an important book, and beautifully put together. The love and care that went into sharing these stories is evident throughout.

A wake up call to what’s happening in Gaza, a book that everyone should read to know the truth and learn the true story of whats going on

Heartwrenching, beautiful, powerful, and so so important. There is so much to say about this book, about the people, their suffering and their strength. Keep talking about Palestine!!

We need to keeping talking about Gaza and this book was so heartbreaking and I was very much crying sometimes thinking about this.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy

Letters From Gaza collected by Mahmoud Alshaer and Mohammed Al-Zaqzooq is a nonfiction anthology of translated letters and poems written by Palestinians in Gaza documenting the genocide that is happening in their homeland.

This is the kind of work that I really struggle to give a star rating to. Not because I don’t find it meaningful or impactful, but because I really struggle to give a star rating to something documenting human suffering like this. I just feel it misses the point entirely. The main reason I’m giving it a star rating is because that’s something people do look for when deciding to pick up a work and I think this anthology is far too important to get lost in the noise of everything else or to be forgotten by history. As stated in the forward, Palestine was known for short stories in order to avoid censorship, but now these individuals are stating clearly and explicitly what is happening.

There’s a very famous quote about how we mourn one death but a million deaths is just a statistic. Unfortunately, I think there is some truth to that quote and I think this anthology combats it wonderfully. Every single piece is accompanied by a bio detailing the life of the writer, their other published works, and, in some, what they’re doing now. It humanizes them further and gives a face, a life, a name to these words. I cried multiple times while reading this and I do believe that the bios played a part in how hard it was hitting me.

Two of the common features of the letters that make me feel this is a must read are 1) the mentions of social media and mobile phones and 2) the disruption of education, life, love, and happiness. It is so easy for many of us to just buy into this idea that countries outside of our own are less developed or, in the near future, accept a larger distance from what happened than there actually is. We do that already by having images of the Civil Rights Movement in black and white instead of in full color, which we absolutely could be circulating instead. It reminds the reader constantly that this is a modern event that is on-going no matter how uncomfortable that might make us.

Content warning for death and genocide
I would recommend this to anyone who has even a passing interest in supporting Palestinians

Such a beautifully written, but heartbreaking book of stories.
This was at times, most of the time in fact, a very difficult book to read. But I'm glad I read it.

Would highly recommend to anyone!

“Letters from Gaza” is a collection from thirty writers and poets of Palestine as they share their perspectives of the ongoing genocide. We are honored to read their feelings, fears, memories, thoughts, and hopes. While “Letters from Gaza” is an easy read, it is emotional. Should be assigned reading.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House SEA! #LettersFromGaza #NetGalley.

The works from the writers and poets of Palestine have been collected into this incredible book to tell their perspectives of the ongoing genocide. Each story or poem has been translated for English readers, with each entry ending with a small biography about their life.

This was an emotional read; filled with anger, hope, fear, grief. Each story or poem is both easy to read, yet so hard to digest. I think this is a must-read for everyone.

Letters From Gaza: A Collection By the People is the most devastating book I’ve read in years; a raw, unflinching chronicle of life under genocide. Edited by Mahmoud Alshaer and Mohammed Al-Zaqzooq, this anthology gathers letters penned by Gazan writers in the aftermath of October 2023, as Israel’s brutal assault ravaged their homes, families, and futures. These pages are a gut-punch. The authors, many now martyred, document unimaginable horrors: children drafting their own obituaries, mothers whispering apologies to unborn babies they know will not survive, and entire lineages erased in seconds. One passage haunts me: “I am searching for the meaning of our lives—of life—in war. Nothing has any meaning except imagining what will happen to us and our bodies when the bombs fall. How will we die? In one piece, two pieces…three? Will we be just body parts? Where will our blood splatter?” This existential dread permeates every page. Children draft their own obituaries; mothers cradle newborns they know will not survive; families scavenge for limbs in rubble. A contributor recounts: “I climbed over the rubble... looking for [my family’s] remains. But a cat arrived before me and devoured a piece of flesh. I wasn’t sure if it was my cousin’s wife. His children?”

The letters force you to inhabit Gazans’ terror, their sleepless nights under bombardment, their grief as they bury neighbors with bare hands, their grotesque calculus of survival. The intimacy of their voices (often cut short by death) shatters the dehumanizing rhetoric of headlines. You don’t just read about starvation; you feel a father’s shame as he fails to find bread for his daughter. You don’t just see statistics of dead children; you hear a 10-year-old calmly describe preparing her “death bag.” The letters reveal how survival itself becomes a paradox. One passage captures the numbing repetition of trauma: “Four seasons have passed, and you are in a place that doesn’t know you... We question our ability to hold on, but war tightens its grip even more. We live the same day with the same set of feelings: ‘How did the people of Gaza endure all this pain?’”

The book forces audiences to reckon with complicity. Israel’s siege weaponizes even basic needs: "Even then, the Occupation targeted bread, water, and fuel lines. To think of eating became a crime, a transgression for which children, women, and even the defeated elderly paid the toll.” These are firsthand accounts from Palestinians living, and dying, under Israel’s genocidal, savage and inhumane assault post-October 2023. These letters, many penned by authors who were later killed, are not mere narratives; they are visceral screams against oblivion.« Tonight, I will fall asleep telling myself that the noise outside is fireworks, a celebration and nothing more. That the frightened screams of children are the gleeful terror of suspense before something long-awaited, like Eid. »

Letters From Gaza is a counter-archive against historical amnesia. It echoes Kanafani’s Letter from Gaza (1956), where a wounded niece’s amputated leg becomes a metaphor for collective steadfastness. Again, this is the most devastating and painful book I’ve read in years. It left me sobbing, furious, and irrevocably changed. As one letter pleads: “Come back, my friend! We are waiting for you,” a call to global solidarity.
Chaimae Belahrache
Ph.D. Candidate in New Trends in Literary, Linguistics, and Cultural Studies (UAE-Tetouan)
M.A. in English Literature and History of Ideas
B.A. in English Literature
Adjunct University Professor of English | Faculty of Economy
Co-Author of https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14725886.2024.2394778?af=R (Routledge, Taylor and Francis)
chaimae.belahrache@etu.uae.ac.ma

Letters From Gaza is a powerful and deeply human collection that amplifies voices often drowned out by headlines. Alshaer and Al-Zaqzooq have curated a raw, emotional mosaic of lived experiences from a year of unimaginable hardship, making the political personal and the personal universally resonant.

The strength of this book lies in its authenticity. These aren’t polished narratives—they’re fragments of life: letters, reflections, and bursts of emotion penned in the shadow of destruction. That unfiltered honesty gives the collection a visceral punch. You feel the exhaustion, the grief, the tiny moments of hope.

If there's a flaw, it's perhaps that the structure can feel uneven at times. Some entries land harder than others, and a more cohesive narrative thread might have helped readers follow the emotional arc more clearly. But maybe that’s the point—life in Gaza isn’t structured neatly, and neither are these stories.

This is not an easy read, but it’s a necessary one. It doesn’t preach or politicize—it simply invites you to bear witness. And in a world where bearing witness is an act of resistance, that’s more than enough.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the ARC.

Publishing date: April 28, 2025

Letters from Gaza is a collection of letters from 30 people trying to survive unthinkable, ongoing tragedy and devastation in Gaza.

The authors of the letters write about the pain and heartbreak of losing family members, not knowing the next place they will lay their head down, and if they they will wake up.

I frequently had to put this book, which is something that Gazans do not have the luxury to do as they are living through the horrors in real time.