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The Man Who Read Books

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The Man Who Read Books

Written by: Rachid Benzine, Sam Taylor — Translator
Narrated by: Ahd Tamimi
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About this listen

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

 Genre Fiction Literary Fiction
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Critic Reviews

"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)
"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"
"Both intimate and expansive . . . A tender portrayal of the power of literature and friendship"
"Taut and heartbreaking . . . It adds up to a memorable portrait of life during wartime"
"Beautifully translated, Benzine's novel will be at home in every library"
"One of the most powerful novels of the literary season. It is not only a story about Palestine, it’s a plea for humanity"
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