{"product_id":"one-day-everyone-will-have-always-been-against-this-national-book-award","title":"One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This: National Book Award","description":"\u003ctable align=\"center\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\"\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd class=\"productDetailSmallElements\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eBiographical Note\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOMAR EL AKKAD is an author and journalist. He was born in Egypt, grew up in Qatar, moved to Canada as a teenager, and now lives in the United States. He is a two-time winner of both the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award and the Oregon Book Award for fiction. His books have been translated into thirteen languages. His debut novel, \n\u003ci\u003eAmerican War\u003c\/i\u003e, was named by the BBC as one of one hundred novels that shaped our world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"It is difficult to understand the nature of a true rupture while it is still tearing through the fabric of our world. Yet that is precisely what Omar El Akkad has accomplished, putting broken heart and shredded illusions into words with tremendous insight, skill and courage. A unique and urgently needed book.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e-- \n\u003cb\u003eNaomi Klein, author of \u003ci\u003eDoppelganger\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"[A] bracing memoir and manifesto. . . . With precision and passion, [El Akkad] compels readers to close the emotional distance between 'us' and 'them' and to consider the immense suffering of civilians with renewed urgency.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A bracing case for empathy.... What would it take to render a horror 'over there' equally real to one 'over here'? How do we lie to ourselves so convincingly, and what is the cost of those lies? These questions burn and throb with a haunting clarity [in \n\u003ci\u003e One Day\u003c\/i\u003e]. . . . El Akkad is . . . a moral meteorologist. . . . It reminds me of a story I heard once, about the late Toronto filmmaker Charles Officer, who was asked why he makes films that preach to the choir. It is because the choir must be fortified, he answered. El Akkad is tending to an exhausted choir, so that its song may ring clear.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e-- \n\u003cb\u003eElamin Abdelmahmoud, \u003ci\u003e The Washington Post\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"Fiercely agonized. . . . [Omar El Akkad's] book is a distraught but eloquent cry against our tolerance for other people's calamities.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e--\u003c\/i\u003eFintan O'Toole, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review \u003c\/i\u003e(cover) \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Powerful. . . compelling. . . haunting.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e--\u003c\/i\u003eSean O'Hagan\u003ci\u003e, The Guardian Observer\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"A thoughtful, heartfelt, and ultimately heartbroken missive from an immigrant to his second home--a country whose vaunted values, never fulfilled, now seem almost a mockery. Echoing Baldwin, El Akkad writes from anger and love.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e--\u003c\/i\u003eKate Tuttle, \u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"Affecting. . . . Wherever we go, El Akkad is correct that we must start with refusal, if only the refusal to look away.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--JewishCurrents \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Exceptionally powerful, as a howl of rage and grief against the status quo must be. . . . This is a book that many will take issue with, and most will find uncomfortable, which makes it even more important. Discomfort, as he points out, is a luxury.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e--\u003c\/i\u003eAlex Clark\u003ci\u003e, Financial Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\" \n\u003ci\u003eOne Day\u003c\/i\u003e is powerful, angry, but always compelling in its moral logic, and damn hard to put down. . . by the end my heart was drumming. . . . For me it was cathartic, almost spiritual. . . . It is an important book, a must-read.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Dina Nayeri, \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A powerful and deeply disturbing book. . . . It took courage to write \n\u003ci\u003eOne Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This\u003c\/i\u003e. It takes courage too, to read it. Because El Akkad is right.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e--\u003c\/i\u003eLawrence Hill, \u003ci\u003eThe Globe and Mail\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"This book is a howl from the heart of our age. I struggle to find more precise wording that might capture its ferocious, fracturing rage, as it seeks to describe the indescribable, make coherent an increasingly incoherent world.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e-- \n\u003cb\u003eRichard Flanagan, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Narrow Road to the Deep North\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"I can't think of a more important piece of writing to read right now. Doom and gloom and unspeakable horror abound and overwhelm these days, but it remains important to understand what we already know is happening now and how it will be understood in the future. It helps when we feel helpless to give our time and attention, our hearts and consideration to a voice like this, a book like this, from our particular time and for it. There is so much power in language here, where it is difficult to find words, such heart in a world that feels has lost its way. I found hope here, and help, to face what the world is now, all that it isn't anymore. Please read this. I promise you won't regret it. I honestly don't know how you could.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Tommy Orange, author of\u003ci\u003e Wandering Stars\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"If you cannot fathom the scale and savagery of the genocide against the Palestinian people, if you feel the world is smashed off its axis and you feel profoundly alone, profoundly mad, then read this clear, elegant and devastatingly truthful account of why you are not mad, and not alone; read this shatteringly honest book by a great writer who also cannot reconcile those things, but is--on behalf of us all, and with his whole soul--trying.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e-- \n\u003cb\u003eMax Porter, author of \u003ci\u003eGrief Is the Thing with Feathers\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\" \n\u003ci\u003eOne Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This \u003c\/i\u003ewants us to answer its questions with the greatest possible honesty, and to embrace those answers as our true companions. What it gives us is nothing less than lionhearted, dauntless, unembellished love.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Megha Majumdar, author of \u003ci\u003eA Burning\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"[A] fierce, anguished indictment of Western hypocritical indifference towards Israel's destruction of Gaza. . . . Terrifying, shameful, and necessary testimony.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e-- \n\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e (starred review)\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"I will read anything Omar El Akkad ever writes. This book is a reckoning. The lie that the West is founded upon--from the beginning--blooms in blood on the pages. This book is a love story in the face of genocide--a love born between the very peoples we have always colonized and killed as if they are the raw material of building nations. What a furious, perfect heart it took to stare into the abyss we call being human and emerge with a revolution song.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e-- \n\u003cb\u003eLidia Yuknavitch, \u003ci\u003e The Millions\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"Omar El Akkad's book is riveting in its honesty. I found it to be a brilliant mosaic of heartfelt reflections on the sad state of the world, one that dared to end in hope.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e-- \n\u003cb\u003eRaja Shehadeh, author of \u003ci\u003eWe Could Have Been Friends \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003ePalestinian Walks\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"Never again starts with not dehumanising the Other. No one, ever. Thank you @omarelakkad for putting this into words.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur, via X\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"I feel inadequate to describe a book like this with the right superlatives--I don't want to reduce the book down to one thing in doing so. . . but I hope Omar El Akkad's \n\u003ci\u003eOne Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This\u003c\/i\u003e will find a large audience.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e-- \n\u003cb\u003eJeff VanderMeer, author of the Southern Reach Trilogy\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"El Akkad. . . state[s] that one of the demands of modern power is that those subject to it must imagine that some group of people somewhere are not fully human. . . . Taking a global view, El Akkad, who lives in the U.S., finds almost every government and society wanting, and not least those, he says, that turn away and pretend not to know. . . . A philosophically rich critique of state violence and mass apathy.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e-- \n\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"Part elegy, part rallying cry, this magnificent book should, and will, be required reading for future generations trying to reckon with one of humanity's darkest chapters.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Téa Obreht, author of\u003ci\u003e The Tiger's Wife\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"A startling, shocking, beautiful and essential book. It shook me up.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e-- \n\u003cb\u003eBrian Eno\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"Omar El Akkad's \n\u003ci\u003eOne Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This\u003c\/i\u003e, lays bare and eviscerates the genocidal logics of fascism and liberalism. Here, language does what we need it to do: it clarifies, it condemns, it names, it grieves. Here, too, is a lexicon for what might survive this. Devastating and scathing; you will want to read, will want to have read, this book.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Christina Sharpe, author of \u003ci\u003eOrdinary Notes\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"Is this the most urgent book you can read right now? Yes, it is. \n\u003cbr\u003eIs this the most moral book you can read right now? It sure is. \n\u003cbr\u003eIs this the most eye-opening book right now? Yep. \n\u003cbr\u003eIs this the most needed book for our times? Absolutely.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Rabih Alameddine, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Wrong End of the Telescope\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"In this powerful indictment of Western complicity in the genocide of Palestinians, Omar El Akkad asks: how are we supposed to go on living in this world? He looks for his answer to the worlds colonized and oppressed, who have always lived according to a love that 'cannot be acknowledged by the empire because it's a people's love for one another.'\" \n\u003cbr\u003e-- \n\u003cb\u003eIsabella Hammad, author of \u003ci\u003eEnter Ghost\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\" \n\u003ci\u003eOne Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This \u003c\/i\u003estrikes with the clarifying force of an angel. By turns furiously troubled and achingly introspective, El Akkad sets fire to the devourous genocidal abyss we call a civilization and all the billion mendacities that sustain it. A landmark of truth-telling and moral courage, \n\u003ci\u003eOne Day\u003c\/i\u003e is the truest most necessary book you will ever read.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Junot Díaz, author of\u003ci\u003e The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"An extraordinary, essential work of fury and humanity, as well as a damning indictment of Western hypocrisy and institutional malignity. I cannot conceive of a more important book to read right now, or a more incisive and elegant articulation of this dark time. Every page contains a sentence or a paragraph I wanted to tear out and nail to the wall. I wish I could send a copy of El Akkad's moral call to arms to every person in America, every person in the West--the outraged and the apathetic alike.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Dan Sheehan, author of\u003ci\u003e Restless Souls\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"Omar El Akkad has produced something close to impossible with this elegiac and deeply personal book. With barely contained fury at the depths of Western hypocrisy, El Akkad manages to speak not just for himself but for all of us in the face of Israel's unspeakable violence against the Palestinians.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Moustafa Bayoumi, author of \u003ci\u003eHow Does It Feel to Be a Problem\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\"El Akkad's propulsive and damning indictment of Western violence and sanctimony in Palestine and beyond reads as a cry from the heart. He carefully dissects what it means to be an immigrant writing about the brutality of a system he has chosen to be part of and all the ensuing psychological harm that follows.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e-- \n\u003cb\u003eNadifa Mohamed, author of\u003ci\u003e The Fortune Men\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Omar El Akkad's devastating new book lays bare the deliberately distorted twists of language and logic that have allowed us to sustain a politics of extermination. The care, grief, anger, and intimacy that Akkad brings to every page implicates all of us and is a testament to the moral and intellectual courage that make this desperately needed book absolutely necessary.\" \n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e--Dinaw Mengestu, author of\u003ci\u003e Someone Like Us\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher Marketing\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES \u003c\/i\u003eBESTSELLER - NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER - A \u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES \u003c\/i\u003eNOTABLE BOOK - PALESTINE BOOK AWARD WINNER - FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR CRITICISM - From award-winning novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad comes a powerful reckoning with what it means to live in a West that betrays its fundamental values. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"[A] bracing memoir and manifesto.\" --\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"I can't think of a more important piece of writing to read right now. I found hope here, and help, to face what the world is now, all that it isn't anymore. Please read this. I promise you won't regret it.\" --Tommy Orange, bestselling author of\u003ci\u003e Wandering Stars \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThere There\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eOn October 25, 2023, after just three weeks of the bombardment of Gaza, Omar El Akkad put out a tweet: \"One day, when it's safe, when there's no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it's too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.\" This tweet has been viewed more than 10 million times. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAs an immigrant who came to the West, El Akkad believed that it promised freedom. A place of justice for all. But in the past twenty years, reporting on the War on Terror, Ferguson, climate change, Black Lives Matter protests, and more, and watching the unmitigated slaughter in Gaza, El Akkad has come to the conclusion that much of what the West promises is a lie. That there will always be entire groups of human beings it has never intended to treat as fully human--not just Arabs or Muslims or immigrants, but whoever falls outside the boundaries of privilege. \n\u003ci\u003eOne Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This\u003c\/i\u003e is a chronicle of that painful realization, a moral grappling with what it means, as a citizen of the U.S., as a father, to carve out some sense of possibility in a time of carnage. \n\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis is El Akkad's nonfiction debut, his most raw and vulnerable work to date, a heartsick breakup letter with the West. It is a brilliant articulation of the same breakup we are watching all over the United States, in family rooms, on college campuses, on city streets; the consequences of this rupture are just beginning. This book is for all the people who want something better than what the West has served up. This is the book for our time.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations:\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/span\u003e 09\/01\/2024 pg. 12 (EAN 9780593804148, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eBooklist\u003c\/span\u003e 01\/01\/2025 pg. 18 (EAN 9780593804148, Hardcover) - *Starred Review\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/span\u003e 01\/15\/2025 (EAN 9780593804148, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eShelf Awareness\u003c\/span\u003e 12\/04\/2025 (EAN 9780593804148, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e El Akkad, Omar\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Knopf Publishing Group\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePub Date:\u003c\/b\u003e 2025-02-25\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBISAC:\u003c\/b\u003e Biography \u0026amp; Autobiography|Memoirs|Political Science|World|Middle Eastern|Political Science|Political Ideologies|Democracy\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSubjects:\u003c\/b\u003e El Akkad, Omar|Arab American authors|Journalists|United States|Israel-Hamas War, 2023-|Muslims|Social conditions|Arabs|Autobiographies\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.74 lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780593804148\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eASIN:\u003c\/b\u003e -\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSKU:\u003c\/b\u003e SP-9780593804148\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Knopf Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51154472206614,"sku":"SP-9780593804148","price":38.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0857\/9910\/8886\/files\/9780593804148_spiral.png?v=1774946721","url":"https:\/\/lusper.myshopify.com\/products\/one-day-everyone-will-have-always-been-against-this-national-book-award","provider":"Lusperbooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}