RITA DI SANTO assesses the winners of the most politically charged festival to date
Latest editorial
Life in the world's largest prison
GORDON PARSONS recommends a collection of short stories on the grim realities of existence in Gaza
Bearing witness: Nayrouz Qarmout
[Comma Press]
KATARZYNA KOSMALA introduces a retrospective by one of the most significant figures in contemporary US photography
MAYER WAKEFIELD is entertained but let down by an audacious production that, sadly, doesn't ring true
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by drama that, despite accomplished performances, cannot overcome an unfocused script
New releases from Sam Carter, Spell Songs and Les Thomas
The Sea Cloak
by Nayrouz Qarmout
(Comma Press, £9.99)
WHAT is daily life really like in Gaza? Most of us see on our screens the chaos, fear and destruction at fairly frequent intervals when the Israeli government releases the full power of the IDF on its prisoners but few can imagine the reality of living in that prison.
This first collection of short stories by journalist, women’s rights campaigner and Gaza resident Nayrouz Qarmout achieves what televised images and impartial newspaper reports cannot reach.
There is no polemic in these sharply etched moments in the lives of children and young women surviving as normally as possible in a world where the surreal has become the reality.
Similar stories
RON JACOBS welcomes a history of the Young Patriots Organisation that is also an organising manual with applications and implications for today
ALAN MORRISON welcomes a new collection from the most imaginative and committed ecopoet of our time
RUTH AYLETT recommends that this mixture of memoir, diary and poetry by a young Gazan writer be read as widely as possible
Groups are urging the US government to secure the 16-year old’s release as his mental and physical health decline dramatically after nine months inside Ofer prison, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER