One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This Audiobook By Omar El Akkad cover art

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

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One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

By: Omar El Akkad
Narrated by: Omar El Akkad
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • 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

“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.

©2025 Omar El Akkad (P)2025 Random House Audio
Democracy Ideologies & Doctrines Middle East Politics & Government World Heartfelt Inspiring Thought-Provoking
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Critic reviews

"It is difficult to understand the nature of a true rupture while it is still tearing through the fabric of our world. Yet that is precisely what Omar El Akkad has accomplished, putting broken heart and shredded illusions into words with tremendous insight, skill and courage. A unique and urgently needed book.—Naomi Klein, author of Doppelganger

"[A] bracing memoir and manifesto.... With precision and passion, [El Akkad] compels readers to close the emotional distance between 'us' and 'them' and to consider the immense suffering of civilians with renewed urgency."The New York Times

"One Day is powerful, angry, but always compelling in its moral logic, and damn hard to put down.... by the end my heart was drumming.... For me it was cathartic, almost spiritual....It is an important book, a must-read"—Dina Nayeri, The Guardian

Beautiful Writing • Profound Insights • Excellent Narration • Emotional Impact • Incisive Critique • Impactful Prose
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Everything about this book was everything we all need to know, hear, consider, and act upon.

Thank you 🙏🏽

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Omar El Akkad beautifully describes the current world, news, events, people's behaviors, people's resistance, racism, empirical oppression on many countries, colonization and occupation, and the current atrocities and the genocide in Gaza. He spoke my mind. I listened to the audio book and ordered a copy to annotate it.

an honest view of the world during the genocide!

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This was life changing. Seeing how these narratives play out in real time so that we can justify the atrocious has always been a mystery. But because of this book, no longer.

Stop participating

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There are feelings that only this author can express so well. It's the ability to understand why we feel the way we do, and draw analogies from the more mundane aspects of life to show how absurd feeling any other way would be.

ppwerful

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This is literally the best book I have ever read or listened to. Great narration and production too.

Literally the best book I have ever read

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This should be required reading for everyone. It feels like screaming into a void, telling people that they are not seeing the whole picture of the atrocities being perpetuated in Gaza. The cries of antisemitism when you try to point out the history, that Israel is the aggressor. This author does an amazing job of painting a very clear picture for the reader - we are on the right side of history; as well as giving great talking points for which to start conversations with people. I'm going to listen again, this time taking notes as so much of this book is heartbreakingly quotable. Hopefully more people will wake up to what is truly going on.

Finished in one go.

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This books prevents you from looking away at the horrific carnage that is going on in Palestine. It makes the reader take a deep dive into their conscience. We hear of past injustices and genocides and wonder what we would have done had we been alive at that time. It’s happening again and what will we do about it? Amazing book!

Palestinians are human beings

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It's observant, smart, honest, but above all it gives you a small space to feel your humanity in the face the absurd and terrifying. It doesn't make you feel righteous or hopeful, but gives you a small amount of solace that your sense of the inhumanity of the inhuman is not stupid or inconvenience or juvenile or rude but the core of rationality.

The best book I've read in years

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A beautifully sad book from a much needed perspective. In this moment of deafening silence around the genocide, I desperately needed to hear this voice. Absolutely everyone should read or listen.

Heartbreaking; and not to be missed.

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Words can’t possibly match the feelings I had after reading this book. I am grateful for your words and thoughts. It is said that one cannot have empathy unless one experience the same event—your book has allowed me to connect in a way that will allow me a better understanding and connection of those living in this nightmare and how complacency in the western world is truly a sin!!! I will do better!!

Perspective

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