Imagine scribbling poems in the pitch black, explosions shaking the walls, your kids huddled close while you whisper distractions. That's the world Mosab Abu Toha inhabited when he created Forest of Noise. This hardcover collection, fresh off the press on October 15, 2024, isn't just poetry—it's a lifeline from Gaza's siege, praised as a New York Times Notable Book and 'powerful, capacious, and profound' by Ocean Vuong.
Barely 30, Abu Toha was already an acclaimed Palestinian poet and Pulitzer winner when Israeli forces bombed his home, destroying his community library. He fled with his family—not for the first time—yet somehow kept writing. These poems wrestle with the absurd: directives for surviving air raids, lyrics of his wife singing to calm the children, recollections of his grandfather's oranges amid the rubble.
It's the uncanny directness that sticks. One moment you're reading about relative peacetime joys; the next, the grind of occupation where living means dodging death. Abu Toha introduces his extended family, some gone forever, in lines that feel whispered secrets. Whimsical yet searing, they defy the horror unfolding live on screens worldwide.
Reading this feels intimate, like overhearing a survivor's notebook. It's perfect for quiet evenings when you crave words that cut through noise—maybe alongside tea, pondering life's fragility. Gift it to poetry lovers, activists, or anyone seeking authentic voices from conflict zones. In a sea of filtered stories, Forest of Noise delivers the unvarnished truth, reminding us what it means to create amid destruction.
Grab this extraordinary book and let Gaza's forest of sounds echo in your mind long after the last page.
