In Gaza I Dare To Dream is a mesmerizing window into one of the greatest miracles in human history: Palestinian resilience. These dispossessed people endure the most severe Israeli racist oppression but do not give up. Rana Shubair’s writing is rich, forceful and personal. Rana brings the reader to Gaza, to the sea, to the street, to her balcony. In Gaza I Dare To Dream you hear the Israeli drones above, smell the generator fumes and see the children playing on the beach. This book also provides invaluable insight into the role of Islam within Palestinian society and the power of religion as a unifying force. Rana Shubair is not a journalist who has visited Gaza for a week or two, she is the real thing. She has endured the open-air prison that is Gaza and provided a heartfelt account that is lyrical, poetic and devastating.

Rana Shubair gives us an insider's view of her "beloved Gaza," the open-air prison where periodic Israeli assaults turn people into "numbers," and where daily life is at the mercy of a "power switch" going on and off (mostly off). In Shubair's telling, love becomes the only means of resistance, so as to remain "human beings like them"-- those who are free. Love of country and of people, love which no one can jail, proves to be a source of human and literary creativity.

When Rana sent me a copy of her manuscript a few weeks ago and asked me for my reactions, I told her that I would get to it in several days. But I decided to take a quick peek at it when it arrived by email a few moments later. Once I started reading, everything else went on hold. I was totally absorbed. I could not put it down. I read it cover to cover without interruption. My immediate reaction – get this book published. In Gaza: I Dare to Dream moved me. In fact, it inspired me.