TEHRAN-The Persian translation of “The Book of Gaza: A City in Short Fiction” edited by the Palestinian writer Atef Abu Saif has been released during the 35th Tehran International Book Fair, which is underway in Tehran, from May 8 to 18.

Andisheh Molana Publishing House has published the book with a translation by Samaneh Kadkhodaei Marghzar, Mehr reported.

The book brings together a dozen of Palestine’s greatest modern prose writers. The unique anthology sets contemporary stories against the backdrop of one of the world’s most talked-about cities, Gaza.

Together, these stories will enable readers to go beyond the global media coverage and enter into the daily life of ordinary characters struggling to live with dignity in what is effectively the world’s largest prison. The authors range from highly acclaimed writers to exciting new voices in Arabic literature, including the “Father of the Palestinian” short story, Zaki Al Ela, and a new generation of young women bloggers and activists, such as Mona Abu Sharikhm, Dawlat Al Masri, and Najla Attalah.

The other featured authors include Atef Abu Saif, Talal Abu Shawish, Yusra al Khatib, Asmaa al-Ghoul, Ghareeb Asqalani, Nayrouz Qarmout, and Abdallah Tayeh.

Under the Israeli occupation of the '70s and '80s, writers in Gaza had to go to considerable lengths to ever have a chance of seeing their work in print. Manuscripts were written out longhand, invariably under pseudonyms, and smuggled out of the Strip to Jerusalem, Cairo, or Beirut, where they then had to be typed up. Consequently, fiction grew shorter, novels became novellas, and short stories flourished as the city's form of choice. Indeed, to Palestinians elsewhere, Gaza became known as “the exporter of oranges and short stories”.

This anthology brings together some of the pioneers of the Gazan short story from that era, as well as younger exponents of the form, with ten stories that offer glimpses of life in the Strip that go beyond the global media headlines; stories of anxiety, oppression, and violence, but also of resilience and hope, of what it means to be a Palestinian, and how that identity is continually being reforged; stories of ordinary characters struggling to live with dignity in what many have called “the largest prison in the world”.

The books by Atef Abu Saif, 50, have been translated into various languages, and his writings have also been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, Guernica, and Slate. He has served as a spokesman for Fatah and served as Minister for Culture in the Palestine Authority since 2019.

Abu Saif was born in Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. He studied at the University of Birzeit and the University of Bradford before going on to obtain a PhD from the European University Institute in Florence.

Since his literary debut in the late 1990s, Abu Saif has written a number of novels and short story collections. His novel “A Suspended Life| (2014) was shortlisted for the 2015 Arabic Booker Prize. He has published five other novels and two collections of short stories as well.

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