(Nonfiction, 352 pp., 2024)
Early in the morning of October 7, 2023, Amir Tibon and his wife were awakened by mortar rounds exploding near their home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, a progressive Israeli community less than a mile from Gaza City. Soon, they were holding their two young daughters in the family’s reinforced safe room, urging them not to cry as gunfire echoed just outside the door. With his cell phone battery running low, Amir texted his father: “The girls are behaving really well, but I’m worried they’ll lose patience soon and Hamas will hear us.” Some 45 miles north, Amir’s parents jumped in their Jeep, armed only with a pistol. Tibon reveals his father’s courageous quest to make his way to the kibbutz to save his family, as well as the stories of many other heroes. He honors the legacy of those who died to save others, and highlights some of the impossible decisions that lay before Israelis that day.
Review by Rafael Behr, The Guardian, November 30, 2024
Review by Vivian Bercovici, State of Tel Aviv, November 24, 2024
Review by Marc Katz, Jewish Book Council, December 11, 2024
Review by Jennifer Lipman, The Jewish Chronicle, October 2, 2024
Review by Jonathan Schanzer, Pundicity, October 6, 2024
Interview by Leila Fadel, National Public Radio, October 3, 2024 (audio)
Interview by Hadar Susskind and Maxxe Albert-Deitch, New Jewish Narrative, September 17, 2024 (video)
Interview by Bonnie Ellinger, New Mexico Jewish Journal, April 20, 2025
