MARIA DUARTE is swept along by the cocky self-belief of a ping-pong hustler in a surprisingly violent drama
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Life in the world's largest prison
GORDON PARSONS recommends a collection of short stories on the grim realities of existence in Gaza
Bearing witness: Nayrouz Qarmout
[Comma Press]
STEVE ANDREW recommends a lively and often moving guide to once vibrant spaces that have been abandoned or swept away
GEOFF BOTTOMS appreciates the local touch brought to a production of Dickens’s perennial classic
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production whose design and cartoonish acting overwhelms the close scrutiny of characters
SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys the raucous familiarity of a traditional topsy-turvy pantomime
RON JACOBS introduces the latest novel by the best writer of US working-class fiction writing today
The Sea Cloak
by Nayrouz Qarmout
(Comma Press, £9.99)
WHAT is daily life really like in Gaza? Most of us see on our screens the chaos, fear and destruction at fairly frequent intervals when the Israeli government releases the full power of the IDF on its prisoners but few can imagine the reality of living in that prison.
This first collection of short stories by journalist, women’s rights campaigner and Gaza resident Nayrouz Qarmout achieves what televised images and impartial newspaper reports cannot reach.
There is no polemic in these sharply etched moments in the lives of children and young women surviving as normally as possible in a world where the surreal has become the reality.
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