Rochester Reads turns its sights to Gaza

Rochester Reads is celebrating 25 years of asking the community to read one book – and then come together to discuss it.

This year, Writers & Books has selected two titles — one being Omar El Akkad’s “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This.” El Akkad has described the book as a kind of breakup letter with the West. He writes of the devastation in Gaza and the plight of the Palestinian people. Writers & Books says the book “underscores literature’s capacity to bear witness to the lives, places, and issues that are often left in the margins.”

We talk with El Akkad and the executive director of Writers & Books about how the novel speaks to the current societal moment.

Omar El Akkad, author of “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This”

Michael Solis, executive director of Writers & Books

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