The Stars Shine Brighter

A Palestinian journalist’s extraordinary account of family, survival, and resilience in one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

On the morning of October 7, 2023, Rami Abou Jamous is already packed. A francophone journalist from Palestine, he is familiar with conflicts and quickly grasps what the scale of the Israeli response will be. His emergency bag containing passports, clothes, medical supplies, and cash is never far away—Rami is the father of a 2-year-old son, Walid, whom he must protect at all costs, physically and psychologically.

He decides to create a bubble around this little boy that fear, anxiety, and sadness will not be able to penetrate. Explosions are fireworks, drones are birds in full flight, and Walid keeps smiling. Through a series of forced moves from Gaza City to Rafah to Deir al Balah, from a large, modern apartment to a refugee tent, Rami fights to preserve the safety and dignity of his family and neighbors.

A declaration of a father’s love for his son, Life in Gaza plunges the reader into the everyday reality of wartime. A unique and priceless testimony about supporting others when everything around you is collapsing.Rami Abou Jamous is a journalist and three-time winner of the Bayeux Calvados-Normandy Award for war correspondents, which pays tribute to those who work in hazardous conditions to provide access to information.

Adriana Hunter studied French and Drama at the University of London. She has translated more than ninety books, including Marc Petitjean’s The Heart: Frida Kahlo in Paris and Hervé Le Tellier’s The Anomaly and Eléctrico W, winner of the French-American Foundation’s 2013 Translation Prize in Fiction. She lives in Kent, England.