Running in Place

Running in Place, the first novel from Gaza to be translated into Hebrew, combines a detective-style plot with fantastical elements and historical and political contexts. At the center of the novel is an elderly man who is rushed to the hospital unconscious, yet no one knows who he is or what has happened to him. Is the old man a metaphor for the Gaza Strip, suspended between life and death? And why are those gathered around his hospital bed portrayed as people without hope, running in place, with no belief that tomorrow will be better?   

First published in Arabic in 2019, Running in Place appears in Hebrew translation in 2026. Between these two dates came the events of October 7, 2023, and the devastating war in Gaza, which left the Strip in ruins on an unprecedented scale. This gap in time lends the Hebrew edition an additional layer of meaning, making it something of a “letter from Gaza” from the days before the war. Indeed, through its portrayal of the characters and their relationships, the novel reveals some of the processes that unfolded in Gaza during the two decades leading up to the war: its isolation from the outside world and the West Bank; contact with Israel limited to drones and bombs; and the corrupt tunnel economy, inextricably linked to the ruling authorities.   

The Israeli blind spots brought to light by the novel, and its portrayal of Gaza as a microcosm of the Palestinian story as a whole, are also examined in an afterword written for the Hebrew edition by members of the translation and editorial team, Antoine Shalhat and Yonatan Mendel.   

Translation Editor: Antoine Shalhat

Literary Editor: Dafna Rosenblit

Cover artwork: Hani Zurob, Low-Quality Love (2015), 240 × 200 cm