Need more context on Israel and Palestine? Check out one of these books

NPR

Published October 27, 2023 at 5:40 AM PDT

Israeli students hold Palestinian and Israeli flags, during a demonstration against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new hard-right government, in Tel Aviv University's campus, on Jan. 16, 2023. (Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)

Traci Thomas of “The Stacks” podcast has been turning to books to give her more insight into the crisis in Israel and Gaza. She shares a few of her picks with host Scott Tong.

Book recommendations

Nonfiction

“A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy” by Nathan Thrall
“We Could Have Been Friends My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir” by Raja Shehadeh
“People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present” by Dara Thorn”
“Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics” by Marc Lamont Hill and Mitchell Plitnick
“My Promised Land: The Promise and Tragedy of Israel” by Ari Shavit
“Hundred Years’ War on Palestine” by Rashid Khalidi
“How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less” by Sarah Glidden
“How Jews Became White Folks and What That Says about Race in America” by Karen Brodkin
“The Way to the Spring: Life and Death in Palestine” by Ben Ehrenreich
“Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement” by Angela Davis
“Enemies and Neighbors: Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel 1917-2017” by Ian Black
“Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East” by Michael B. Oren
“The Shortest History of Israel and Palestine” by Michael Scott-Baumann
“When We Were Arabs: A Jewish Family’s Forgotten History” by Massoud Hayoun
“The Question of Palestine” by Edward W. Said
“I Saw Ramallah” by Mourid Barghouti
“On Palestine” by Noam Chomsky and Ilan Pappé
“Ten Myths About Israel” by Ilan Pappé
“Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn” by Daniel Gordis
“On Antisemitism: Solidarity and the Struggle for Justice” by Jewish Voice for Peace
“Kingdom of Olives and Ash: Writers Confront the Occupation” edited by Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman
“The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World” by Avi Shlaim

Fiction

“Minor Detail” by Adania Shibli translated by Elisabeth Jaquette
“All the Rivers” by Dorit Rabinyan
“Against the Loveless World” by Susan Abulhawa
“Mother of Strangers” by Suad Amiry
“To the End of the Land” by David Grossman
“Mornings in Jenin” by Susan Abulhawa
“Salt Houses” by Hala Alyan
“Wild Thorns” by Sahar Khalifeh, translated by Elizabeth Fernea and Trevor Le Gassick
“Murder on a Kibbutz” by Batya Gur
“One Mile and Two Days Before Sunset” by Shimon Adaf
“All Backs Were Turned” by Marek Hlasko, translated by Tomasz Mirkowicz

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.