One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This: National Book Award

By Omar El Akkad

Book Overview

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER - A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK - PALESTINE BOOK AWARD WINNER - 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.

" A] bracing memoir and manifesto." --The New York Times

"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 Wandering Stars and There There

On 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.

As 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. One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This 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.

This 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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0593804147
• ISBN13: 9780593804148
• Release Date: February 2025
• Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.9" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Incredibly powerful

Raw. Illuminating. Intense. “What will always flummox the state is the prospect of the individual, of many individuals, employing negation as a political tactic. What to do with someone who doesn’t rush the podium, doesn’t spit on the flag, doesn’t do anything to ease the states transition into the comfortable arena of violence. What to do with someone who says, “I will have no part of this.” When the entire functionality of the system is dependent on active participation. Forced into this kind of space power becomes enraged and behaves accordingly. Legislators rush to pass bills outlawing boycotts, not only an obvious violation of the freedoms those legislators are sworn to protect, but also, a practical impossibility, this quest to stop people from not buying something. Terms like economic terrorism are tossed around by the same people who are quite happy to pull their donations from universities and literary festivals and anywhere that doesn’t sufficiently silence whatever they want silenced.”

A Heartbreaking Read

Omar has such a conversational tone in this book, so it is easy to read, even though the subject matter in and of itself is not easy. He brings a level of humanity to the Palestinians and their struggle, which has been taken from them for so long. The scenes he describes will stick with you.

One of the best books I have ever read

Mr. El Akkad writes with precision, clarity and ruthlessness about the topics, especially the genocide in Gaza, that all Americans need to come to terms with for the sake of our society and our own souls. His writing is also beautiful and, miraculously, considering what he is writing about, filled with grace. I am deeply grateful for this book and will think about these words and what is behind these words for a very long time.