The Man Who Read Books
- 5 Nov 2026
- 9781837265992
- £12.99
- 144 pp
- 132×201mm
- 5 Nov 2026
- 9781837266005
- £10.39
- 160 pp
- 5 Nov 2026
- 9781837266401
- £18.99
- 2 hrs 35 min
In a few words
A chance encounter on the streets of Gaza tells a magnificent modern tale on the humanising power of books; written by prize-winning novelist Rachid Benzine, translated for the very first time into English by Sam Taylor
In a few words
A chance encounter on the streets of Gaza tells a magnificent modern tale on the humanising power of books; written by prize-winning novelist Rachid Benzine, translated for the very first time into English by Sam Taylor
In a few words
A chance encounter on the streets of Gaza tells a magnificent modern tale on the humanising power of books; written by prize-winning novelist Rachid Benzine, translated for the very first time into English by Sam Taylor
Whoever you are, whatever your politics, please read this
David Mitchell
The Man Who Read Books is direct, beautiful, humane. Such things, so fragile, are the thread we must hold. I hope that every person who has found shelter in reading, who has been saved by the words of another, will open this book
Madeleine Thien
Whoever you are, whatever your politics, please read this
David Mitchell
The Man Who Read Books is direct, beautiful, humane. Such things, so fragile, are the thread we must hold. I hope that every person who has found shelter in reading, who has been saved by the words of another, will open this book
Madeleine Thien
Whoever you are, whatever your politics, please read this
David Mitchell
The Man Who Read Books is direct, beautiful, humane. Such things, so fragile, are the thread we must hold. I hope that every person who has found shelter in reading, who has been saved by the words of another, will open this book
Madeleine Thien
More about
the book
AN ENGLISH PEN AWARD WINNER
A BARNES & NOBLE BEST FICTION BOOK OF 2026
‘Please read this’ DAVID MITCHELL
‘A book to give, to share, to cherish’ LEÏLA SLIMANI
One morning, during a ceasefire in Gaza, a young photographer wanders far from his hotel and into the narrow alleys of the city. Roaming aimlessly, he stumbles across an old man, surrounded by stacks of books. As the photographer raises his camera, the bookseller asks him to listen to his story first. ‘For isn’t there a story behind every gaze? The story of a life. Sometimes of an entire nation.’
The story that unfolds encompasses exile and imprisonment, resistance and political disillusionment, the joy of watching your children grow up and the tragedies that tear your loved ones from you. They say that when an old man dies a library burns. Day after day, the photographer returns. Year after year, Nabil shares the books that helped him understand and, in some cases, survive these events – from the Palestinian poets Mahmoud Darwish and Mourid Barghouti to Gabriel García Márquez, Frantz Fanon and Ernest Hemingway.
The Man Who Read Books is a magnificent modern story of the power of words against barbarism, of books as bastions of resistance against the loss of empathy, of literature as a means of sustenance during our darkest hours.
‘Direct, beautiful, humane’ MADELEINE THIEN
‘An essential novel’ DAVID DIOP
More about
the book
AN ENGLISH PEN AWARD WINNER
A BARNES & NOBLE BEST FICTION BOOK OF 2026
‘Please read this’ DAVID MITCHELL
‘A book to give, to share, to cherish’ LEÏLA SLIMANI
One morning, during a ceasefire in Gaza, a young photographer wanders far from his hotel and into the narrow alleys of the city. Roaming aimlessly, he stumbles across an old man, surrounded by stacks of books. As the photographer raises his camera, the bookseller asks him to listen to his story first. ‘For isn’t there a story behind every gaze? The story of a life. Sometimes of an entire nation.’
The story that unfolds encompasses exile and imprisonment, resistance and political disillusionment, the joy of watching your children grow up and the tragedies that tear your loved ones from you. They say that when an old man dies a library burns. Day after day, the photographer returns. Year after year, Nabil shares the books that helped him understand and, in some cases, survive these events – from the Palestinian poets Mahmoud Darwish and Mourid Barghouti to Gabriel García Márquez, Frantz Fanon and Ernest Hemingway.
The Man Who Read Books is a magnificent modern story of the power of words against barbarism, of books as bastions of resistance against the loss of empathy, of literature as a means of sustenance during our darkest hours.
‘Direct, beautiful, humane’ MADELEINE THIEN
‘An essential novel’ DAVID DIOP
More about
the book
AN ENGLISH PEN AWARD WINNER
A BARNES & NOBLE BEST FICTION BOOK OF 2026
‘Please read this’ DAVID MITCHELL
‘A book to give, to share, to cherish’ LEÏLA SLIMANI
One morning, during a ceasefire in Gaza, a young photographer wanders far from his hotel and into the narrow alleys of the city. Roaming aimlessly, he stumbles across an old man, surrounded by stacks of books. As the photographer raises his camera, the bookseller asks him to listen to his story first. ‘For isn’t there a story behind every gaze? The story of a life. Sometimes of an entire nation.’
The story that unfolds encompasses exile and imprisonment, resistance and political disillusionment, the joy of watching your children grow up and the tragedies that tear your loved ones from you. They say that when an old man dies a library burns. Day after day, the photographer returns. Year after year, Nabil shares the books that helped him understand and, in some cases, survive these events – from the Palestinian poets Mahmoud Darwish and Mourid Barghouti to Gabriel García Márquez, Frantz Fanon and Ernest Hemingway.
The Man Who Read Books is a magnificent modern story of the power of words against barbarism, of books as bastions of resistance against the loss of empathy, of literature as a means of sustenance during our darkest hours.
‘Direct, beautiful, humane’ MADELEINE THIEN
‘An essential novel’ DAVID DIOP
Rarely has the power of fiction been expressed with such restraint and emotional force. Through the deeply moving story of Nabil, Benzine has written a novel in which literature is not a consolation but an act of resistance - against oblivion, hatred, and dehumanization. A book to give, to share and to cherish
LeÏla Slimani
An essential novel to remind us that those in Gaza continue to read, they continue to exist
David Diop
Extraordinarily graceful . . . [Rachid Benzine] tells the story of a nation through one of its unlikeliest heroes, a bookshop keeper. A portrait of resilience, beauty and the loftiest reaches of the human soul
Hannah Lillith Assadi
A potent study of endurance in the face of violence
Rarely has the power of fiction been expressed with such restraint and emotional force. Through the deeply moving story of Nabil, Benzine has written a novel in which literature is not a consolation but an act of resistance - against oblivion, hatred, and dehumanization. A book to give, to share and to cherish
LeÏla Slimani
An essential novel to remind us that those in Gaza continue to read, they continue to exist
David Diop
Extraordinarily graceful . . . [Rachid Benzine] tells the story of a nation through one of its unlikeliest heroes, a bookshop keeper. A portrait of resilience, beauty and the loftiest reaches of the human soul
Hannah Lillith Assadi
A potent study of endurance in the face of violence
Rarely has the power of fiction been expressed with such restraint and emotional force. Through the deeply moving story of Nabil, Benzine has written a novel in which literature is not a consolation but an act of resistance - against oblivion, hatred, and dehumanization. A book to give, to share and to cherish
LeÏla Slimani
An essential novel to remind us that those in Gaza continue to read, they continue to exist
David Diop
Extraordinarily graceful . . . [Rachid Benzine] tells the story of a nation through one of its unlikeliest heroes, a bookshop keeper. A portrait of resilience, beauty and the loftiest reaches of the human soul
Hannah Lillith Assadi
A potent study of endurance in the face of violence
Rachid Benzine
View profileRachid Benzine is a teacher and research associate at the Fonds Ricoeur. He is the author of numerous works acclaimed by both the public and critics alike. His latest novel was awarded the Grand Prix du Roman Métis.
Sam Taylor is an award-winning literary translator and novelist. He has translated over seventy books from French and his translations have received recognition from the International Booker Prize, National Book Award, Dublin Literary Award, Scott Moncrieff Prize, French-American Foundation Translation Prize and Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize. Born in England, Sam was a journalist at the Observer before moving to France. He now lives in Texas with his family and is working on his sixth novel.
Rachid Benzine
View profileRachid Benzine is a teacher and research associate at the Fonds Ricoeur. He is the author of numerous works acclaimed by both the public and critics alike. His latest novel was awarded the Grand Prix du Roman Métis.
Sam Taylor is an award-winning literary translator and novelist. He has translated over seventy books from French and his translations have received recognition from the International Booker Prize, National Book Award, Dublin Literary Award, Scott Moncrieff Prize, French-American Foundation Translation Prize and Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize. Born in England, Sam was a journalist at the Observer before moving to France. He now lives in Texas with his family and is working on his sixth novel.
Rachid Benzine
View profileRachid Benzine is a teacher and research associate at the Fonds Ricoeur. He is the author of numerous works acclaimed by both the public and critics alike. His latest novel was awarded the Grand Prix du Roman Métis.
Sam Taylor is an award-winning literary translator and novelist. He has translated over seventy books from French and his translations have received recognition from the International Booker Prize, National Book Award, Dublin Literary Award, Scott Moncrieff Prize, French-American Foundation Translation Prize and Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize. Born in England, Sam was a journalist at the Observer before moving to France. He now lives in Texas with his family and is working on his sixth novel.
