In his first nonfiction novel, Omar El Akkad uses his voice in the loudest fashion he can—through his unflinching prose.
Queen’s Journal alumni and 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize winner, Omar El Akkad, ArtSci ’05, released his third novel on Feb. 25 titled, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This.
The novel is a text infused with ion and emotion, calling out the hypocrisies of the West and their complicity in the violence against Palestinians in Gaza. Through the novel, El Akkad examines his own multi-faceted position in the workings of the West.
El Akkad asserts that when the time is acceptable to call out the genocide in Gaza, Western society will claim they didn’t know the extent of what was happening. His novel serves as a testament that dissolves this reality. People in the West could’ve known, but many looked away.
“In my personal experience, one of the infuriating effects of the last 19 months is the feeling that one is going mad. I’m seeing something horrific and that I have to align myself with it in some way or look away from it. I think the book does the opposite of that,” El Akkad said in an interview with The Journal.
The novel centres around El Akkad’s reflections on the violence that’s occurred since the events of Oct. 7, 2023. One Day is formed through a collection of essays that draw upon El Akkad’s memories living in the West throughout the War on Terror, the United States’ socio-military campaign against the Middle East following Sept. 11, 2001, and his experience as a journalist for The Globe and Mail reporting on the Arab Spring in Egypt, war in Afghanistan, and trials in Guantánamo Bay.
After the bombardment of Gaza, El Akkad’s world seemed to collapse in on itself as he became increasingly frustrated with the idea of retaining “normality” in his life and career as the war raged on with little condemnation from people around him.
One Day is a poetic response—a contemporary address to the fractures within Western ideals and El Akkad’s brutal confrontation of the truth.
Western financial and justification of the violence in Gaza towards Palestinians has been disorienting for El Akkad as an Arab man who was born in Egypt, raised in Qatar, studied in Canada, and is currently situated in the United States.
El Akkad has spent most of his life drawn towards Western lifestyle and ideals, like lack of censorship and an emphasis on freedom of thought and expression, but, since the destruction in Gaza, his identity has begun to feel untethered as the corruptions and hypocrisies of the West became impossible to ignore.
“To me, the defining after taste of the book is a kind of uncertainty. I used to have a sense of who I was in relation to this part of the world and now I simply don’t,” El Akkad said.
For El Akkad, writing is his first true home, and the space where he feels most comfortable. From writing fiction stories from age five onwards, to spending most of his university experience writing for The Journal, El Akkad has always turned to writing to try and understand the world around him.
“Writing is the basis for my interaction with the world,” El Akkad said.
One Day was borne out of El Akkad’s desire to contend with his ongoing anger and grief. “I think [the book emerged] out of a sense of desperately wanting to avoid the alternative of silence,” he said.
Though El Akkad’s frustration and anger with the West’s institutional indifference to the injustice perpetrated against Palestinians is apparent, there’s a rich connection to humanity and comion at the heart of the novel.
In One Day, El Akkad frequently writes about the children killed over the past 19 months in Gaza, a heartbreaking reality made even more poignant by the fact he has young children of his own. Speaking to The Journal, El Akkad shared that his children have taught him what truly matters about being human.
Through One Day, El Akkad urges readers to tap into their shared humanity and embrace a deeper sense of empathy.
Despite the bleak realities discussed in One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, El Akkad remains deeply hopeful, more so than ever.
The bravery of student protestors, doctors who risk their lives to provide aid throughout the conflict, and all those who’ve stood in solidarity with Palestinians over the past 19 months leave El Akkad believing there’s more good in this world than bad.
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