sperm - Adham Sharqawi

A novel that will possess you, a novel that will stay with you, a novel whose every event you will experience. You will cry, you will grieve, you will laugh at its madness, you will rejoice, you will live hope—yes, all hope! Do you know, or do you understand, what love is like in Gaza? Do you understand the meaning of true hope in the face of people who fear happiness, in the face of people born from the womb of loss, in a city built of fear where the feeling of safety becomes a cruel joke? In this novel, with Adham Sharqawi, your soul will be illuminated by a tearful hope, a seed sown behind prison bars. "Hope" will be born from within the prisons. How? This is the story. This is Gaza, and these are its women and men, who will remain on its land against their will, a nightmare in their dreams and a lump in their throats while they wake up. Love works miracles here in Gaza. How can a sperm escape from prison and bring them the spirit of a child, a clear message to the enemy that the lives of those enduring suffering continue? Their narrow cells will not steal their freedom. They are stronger. Their weapons are within them, and no one can disarm a weapon they cannot see. Amal and her father were born inside their prisons, in their grasp, three years ago. She was a sperm, and she was born a child. How? It is love, and nothing but love. It stood against the strongest of enemies. For freedom is an innate right possessed only by the free. But this "Nutfa" (Sperm) is different from Adham Sharqawi's previous writings. It will revive your heart and bring a tearful smile to your face. It will make you feel humbled before this resilient people, this people born with freedom as their demand. Yes, I cried. I cried, waiting with them for this "Nutfa" to be completed. I was experiencing the sweet love with Asmaa and Hamza, reading their beautiful letters, and witnessing their love firsthand—the love from which this "Nutfa" was created, and from which Amal (Hope) emerged behind bars. Read this love. Live the moments. Smile, rejoice, and weep for this great people, the resilient people of Gaza!