One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • PALESTINE BOOK AWARD WINNER • FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR CRITICISM • From award-winning novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad comes a powerful reckoning with what it means to live in a West that betrays its fundamental values.

"[A] bracing memoir and manifesto." —The New York Times

"I can’t think of a more important piece of writing to read right now. I found hope here, and help, to face what the world is now, all that it isn’t anymore. Please read this. I promise you won’t regret it." —Tommy Orange, bestselling author of Wandering Stars and There There

On October 25, 2023, after just three weeks of the bombardment of Gaza, Omar El Akkad put out a tweet: “One day, when it’s safe, when there’s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it’s too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.” This tweet has been viewed more than 10 million times.

As an immigrant who came to the West, El Akkad believed that it promised freedom. A place of justice for all. But in the past twenty years, reporting on the War on Terror, Ferguson, climate change, Black Lives Matter protests, and more, and watching the unmitigated slaughter in Gaza, El Akkad has come to the conclusion that much of what the West promises is a lie. That there will always be entire groups of human beings it has never intended to treat as fully human—not just Arabs or Muslims or immigrants, but whoever falls outside the boundaries of privilege. One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This is a chronicle of that painful realization, a moral grappling with what it means, as a citizen of the U.S., as a father, to carve out some sense of possibility in a time of carnage.

This is El Akkad’s nonfiction debut, his most raw and vulnerable work to date, a heartsick breakup letter with the West. It is a brilliant articulation of the same breakup we are watching all over the United States, in family rooms, on college campuses, on city streets; the consequences of this rupture are just beginning. This book is for all the people who want something better than what the West has served up. This is the book for our time.

Someday You Will Regret Having Not Read This

This is essential reading not just for our time but to save your soul. If you think you don’t care about the subject matter, read it for the brilliant writing. If you think you don’t care about the subject matter, you are wrong.

Incredible and powerful

I always prefer when authors read their work and this is a prime example of why. Omar is brave and powerful in this work, weaving the personal with the political. It will not let us turn away from our failures, but also not forget our capacity to recognize these failures and do better.

Powerful

Phenomenal listen. Ordered a hard copy to be able to highlight and take notes. Exceptionally written. Thoughtful and mindful prose. Truth. I’m grateful for this work.

The articulation in this book is emasculate

The author is well spoken and well written. Very impactful. Speaking out is so scary because of the reasons he highlights but this book motivates me to continue doing so.

Every American must read this.

Just read it or listen to it! It is like poetry. This should be required reading.