Irfan's 'illuminating' book on Gaza Strip goes to S&S UK

Simon & Schuster UK (S&S UK) has acquired A Short History of the Gaza Strip by University College London historian Anne Irfan.  

Editorial director for non-fiction Assallah Tahir acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Emma Bal at Madeleine Milburn Agency, with US rights sold to Huneeya Siddiqui, assistant editor at W W Norton. S&S UK will publish in spring 2025.  

“The Gaza Strip is one of the most politically significant and widely-reported-on parts of the world, but misunderstandings about this tiny piece of land and its history abound,” the blurb reads.

“Dr Irfan’s myth-busting book will chart the modern history of Gaza through six key events, from the expulsion of Palestinians in 1948 – when Gaza was truncated to a ‘strip’ that absorbed large numbers of Palestinian refugees – to the rise of Hamas."

A Short History of the Gaza Strip will also bring “to the forefront the people of Gaza" and so “show how Gaza went from being a thriving port town that birthed poets, feminists and revolutionaries to a place known mostly for its poverty and as a battleground for war. In the process she will bring clarity to the current crisis, the geopolitics of the region and Western foreign policy”.

Irfan is a lecturer in interdisciplinary race, gender and postcolonial studies at UCL and an expert on the modern history of Palestine. 

She said: “Having spent much of my academic career researching Palestinian history, I have long observed Gaza’s centrality to the region’s politics, and the widespread misunderstandings about it.  

“The devastating events currently unfolding in the Strip make it more important than ever to shed light on its history and understand the background to the current crisis. I feel very fortunate to be working with Assallah Tahir at Simon & Schuster UK, who shares my dedication to this subject.  

“And I’m very grateful to Emma Bal at Madeleine Milburn, who immediately grasped the book’s importance, for helping get it off the ground.” 

Tahir commented: “Anne’s proposal reminds me of the unique power of publishing to root events today in history. This will be an illuminating and necessary primer for anyone who wants the context to the current war.”