The Man Who Read Books
Will be published approx. on 5. November 2026
Book
Hardback
144 pages
978-1-83726-599-2 (ISBN)
Description
One morning, during a ceasefire in Gaza, a young photographer wanders far from his hotel and into the narrow alleys of the city. Roaming aimlessly, he stumbles across an old man, surrounded by stacks of books. As the photographer raises his camera, the bookseller asks him to listen to his story first. 'For isn't there a story behind every gaze? The story of a life. Sometimes of an entire nation.'
The story that unfolds encompasses exile and imprisonment, resistance and political disillusionment, the joy of watching your children grow up and the tragedies that tear your loved ones from you. They say that when an old man dies a library burns. Day after day, the photographer returns. Year after year, Nabil shares the books that helped him understand and, in some cases, survive these events - from the Palestinian poets Mahmoud Darwish and Mourid Barghouti to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Frantz Fanon and Ernest Hemingway.
The Man Who Read Books is a magnificent modern story of the power of words against barbarism, of books as bastions of resistance against the loss of empathy, of literature as a means of sustenance during our darkest hours.
The story that unfolds encompasses exile and imprisonment, resistance and political disillusionment, the joy of watching your children grow up and the tragedies that tear your loved ones from you. They say that when an old man dies a library burns. Day after day, the photographer returns. Year after year, Nabil shares the books that helped him understand and, in some cases, survive these events - from the Palestinian poets Mahmoud Darwish and Mourid Barghouti to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Frantz Fanon and Ernest Hemingway.
The Man Who Read Books is a magnificent modern story of the power of words against barbarism, of books as bastions of resistance against the loss of empathy, of literature as a means of sustenance during our darkest hours.
Reviews / Votes
An essential novel to remind us that those in Gaza continue to read, they continue to exist -- DAVID DIOP, International Booker Prize-winning author of AT NIGHT ALL BLOOD IS BLACK and BEYOND THE DOOR OF NO RETURN One of the most powerful novels of the literary season. It is not only a story about Palestine, it's a plea for humanity * * Le Parisien * * A novel that burns with relevance * * Dimanche * * A veritable literary phenomenon * * Le360 * *More details
Edition
Main
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Product notice
With dust jacket
Dimensions
Height: 204 mm
Width: 135 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-83726-599-2 (9781837265992)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Rachid Benzine is a teacher and research associate at the Fonds Ricoeur. He is the author of numerous works acclaimed by both the public and critics alike, including Lettres a Nour (Letters to Nour), Ainsi parlait ma mere (So Spoke My Mother), Des mille et une facons d'etre juif ou musulman (A Thousand and One Ways of Being Jewish or Muslim, a dialogue with Delphine Horvilleur), and Voyage au bout de l'enfance (A Journey to the End of Childhood). His latest novel Les Silences des peres (The Silences of Fathers) was awarded the Grand Prix du roman Metis.
Sam Taylor is an award-winning literary translator and novelist. He has translated over seventy books from French including works by many high-profile authors such as Laurent Binet, Leila Slimani, David Diop, Maylis de Kerangal and Marcel Proust. His translations have received recognition from the International Booker Prize, National Book Award, Dublin Literary Award, Scott-Moncrieff Prize, French-American Foundation Translation Prize and Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize. Born in England, Sam was a journalist at the Observer before moving to France. He now lives in Texas with his family and is working on his sixth novel.
Sam Taylor is an award-winning literary translator and novelist. He has translated over seventy books from French including works by many high-profile authors such as Laurent Binet, Leila Slimani, David Diop, Maylis de Kerangal and Marcel Proust. His translations have received recognition from the International Booker Prize, National Book Award, Dublin Literary Award, Scott-Moncrieff Prize, French-American Foundation Translation Prize and Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize. Born in England, Sam was a journalist at the Observer before moving to France. He now lives in Texas with his family and is working on his sixth novel.