Egyptian-Canadian author Omar El Akkad’s One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This is a finalist for the National Book Awards.
The book is among five titles that are competing in the non-fiction category of the annual US awards. The others include Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy by Julia Ioffe; Things in Nature merely grow by Yiyun Li; Wards of the State: The Long Shadow of American Foster Care by Claudia Rowe; and When it all Burns: Fighting Fire in a Transformed World by Jordan Thomas.
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against is El Akkad’s first work of non-fiction, written after the Gaza war began, accusing the Western world of complicity in Palestinian enclave’s destruction.
The book has been commended for blending memoir with political meditation and reportage, discussing how ideals of freedom and justice have collapsed under the guise of neutrality. The title of the book reflects how moral stances easily shift once violence has passed. El Akkad reflects upon these topics as he also recounts his own upbringing across Egypt, Qatar and Canada.
Another regional name is also in the running for this year’s National Book Awards.
The True Story of Raja the Gullible by Rabih Alameddine is competing for the fiction award. Other finalists in that category include A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar; The Antidote by Karen Russell; North Sun: Or, the Voyage of the Whaleship Esther by Ethan Rutherford; and Palaver by Bryan Washington.
A Lebanese-American novelist, Alameddine is known for works such as An Unnecessary Woman, The Angel of History, and The Hakawati, where he wove epic Arab storytelling traditions into contemporary story. His fiction often takes on heavy themes such as exile and belonging with a satirical edge.
In The True True Story of Raja the Gullible, Alameddine reflects on life in Beirut with his idiosyncratic, caustic humour.
The novel follows a 63-year-old high school philosophy teacher, who lives with his controlling mother in a small Beirut apartment. The relationship is described as “unbreakable and insane”. But Raja is invited to a writing residency in the US, and the timing seems like a good fortune as he is looking to escape the private and national calamities that shape his life.
The winners of the National Book Awards will be announced on November 19, in a ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. Winners will receive $10,000, a bronze medal as well as a statue.
