Before the Flood
A Gaza Family Memoir Across Three Generations of Colonial Invasion, Occupation, and War in Palestine
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
The social, political, and historical context of the current Israeli-Palestinian War told through the stories of the author’s family and village.
"Ramzy Baroud's sensitive, thoughtful, searching writing penetrates to the core of moral dilemmas."—Noam Chomsky
A profound exploration of Palestinian history and resilience through the personal stories of the author’s family—the al-Badrasawis. Beginning with intimate details of village life in Beit Daras prior to the Nakba, Ramzy Baroud vividly portrays the rich cultural heritage, deeply rooted traditions, and daily struggles faced by ordinary people whose lives were radically disrupted by the violent upheavals and ongoing conflicts driven by British colonialism and Zionist aggression.
Baroud weaves together past and present, illuminating how historical forces shaped the collective consciousness and steadfast resilience of the Palestinian people. His storytelling reveals not only the harsh realities of occupation, displacement, and loss but also the extraordinary courage, faith, and solidarity that underpin a powerful and enduring spirit of resistance, encapsulated in what the author refers to as the Palestinian “longue durée.” Ultimately, Baroud aims to humanize and reclaim Palestinian narratives from distorted portrayals, highlighting their perseverance and the universal quest for justice and liberation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this devastating account, journalist Baroud (These Chains Will Be Broken) traces multiple generations of his Palestinian family tree as each confronts the Israeli occupation. He begins with family matriarch Madallah Abdulnabi's childhood in idyllic Beit Daras, from which she was forcibly expelled during the 1948 Nakba. Baroud depicts the expulsion with haunting imagery—"hundreds of women and children rushed to the southern road where sunflowers were in full bloom"—and harrowing flashes of carnage ("two little sisters shot holding hands"). These vivid descriptions clarify how the Nakba's trauma continues to resonate through subsequent generations, particularly as Baroud turns toward the Gaza branch of his family. He catalogs their experiences of "imprisonment, torture, and loss," including those of Madallah's son, Ehab al-Badrasawi. In 1987, to the dismay of other family members, Ehab, then a "scrawny" 11-year-old, participated in the first intifada, which erupted after "an Israeli had deliberately run over Palestinian... waiting by a bus stop." Later, Ehab joined Hamas after Israeli forces killed his younger brother Wael. The book hurtles toward October 7 with mounting horror as both Ehab's son and nephew join the fight, and it comes to seem as if Wael's death had "sealed the fate... of the al-Badrasawi family." It's an indelible depiction of the generational trauma that defines the Palestinian struggle.
