My Gaza A city in photographs

Striking photographs from a place "where on any night you could be awoken by a bomb exploding in your neighbor's house." In 2016, al-Saftawi, a documentary journalist, photographer, and social justice advocate, was seeking asylum from Gaza after escaping to New York at age 25. He was given the opportunity to share his experience as a Palestinian youth through published photographs: a rarity afforded to few refugees arriving in America. In the candid autobiographical introduction, the author describes a cruel, restrictive childhood as "the son of a jihadist who killed and contributed to the killing of innocent Israelis. I condemn these actions." That kind of violence, he notes, was revered as heroic by the Muslim Brotherhood, who heavily influenced his father (he was recently released from an 18-year prison sentence). Though al-Saftawi acknowledges that working as a journalist in overpopulated Gaza was "like walking barefoot in a field of thorns," he vividly demonstrates his passion for his homeland throughout this moving pictorial tribute of "memories and dreams." The book is unfiltered in its depiction of the realities of contemporary Gaza as a dusty city awash in exploding bullets, grief-stricken citizens, and crumbling infrastructure. Through al-Saftawi's uncompromising lens, readers witness Gazans carrying war-wounded through the streets, the author's wife framed by a night sky of exploding flares; a bleak view from the rooftop of his childhood neighborhood; and heartbreaking portraits of children shredded by the shrapnel of a drone attack and a close-up of a 7-year-old who witnessed the massacre of his family during Israel's three-week assault on Gaza in 2008 and 2009. Atmospheric, visually moving, and dedicated to "all those who are trapped in the hardships of this life, surviving in the hopes of a better tomorrow," this book shows a hellish landscape with bits of humanity and resilience beaming through. The author includes a contextual timeline and glossary. Blistering portraits of a territory plagued by violence. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.