No Way but Forward: Life Stories of Three Families in the Gaza Strip

by Brian K. Barber

What is life really like in the disparaged Gaza Strip? No Way but Forward takes you there via a set of deeply human accounts of three ordinary young Palestinian men over the past thirty years, including the year following October 7, 2023. Their lives have been riddled with oppressive military constraint, violence, humiliation, and loss. Yet along with their parents, wives, and children, they have persevered in making an honorable life for themselves. These narratives are gripping, instructive, inspiring, tragic, and universally relevant as tales of survival, endurance, and hope.

309 pages, Hardcover

Published January 15, 2025

About the author

BRIAN K. BARBER, PhD, is a Senior Scholar at the Middle East Policy Council, a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Palestine Studies, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Tennessee. He currently lives in Washington, DC. Barber’s work has addressed how context—from parenting to political systems—impacts individual and social development. Barber is the editor of Adolescents and War: How Youth Deal with Political Conflict (Oxford University Press, 2008), among other books. For the past thirty years, he has researched more than ten thousand Palestinian families in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. Brian became a finalist for the IAN Book of the Year Awards in 2025. His published articles have appeared in The Lancet, Social Science & Medicine, Global Public Health, PLOS ONE, Child Development, the Journal of Adolescent Research, and other journals. Barber’s commentaries have appeared in Haaretz, Breaking News, Latest News and Videos | CNN , Informed Comment, Counterpunch, and Middle East Policy.

Reviews

[Michael Bernstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

The human story of three real families and their experiences growing up in Gaza, and how everything collided after October 7th. Grace, warmth, humanity, and truth: this book has all in spades.

[Phil Shane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an important book--the best I've found about Palestinian life in the Gaza Strip leading up to, including, and following the October 7, 2023 massacre and kidnapping of more than 1,200 people living in or visiting communities on the Israeli side of the border. In Israel—not in Palestine—these communities, numbering more than fifty and housing more than 70,000 Israelis, are known as the “Gaza Envelope,” an apt term for the Israeli chokehold. Coordinated by Hamas and conducted by commissioned terrorists, most Palestinians were as shocked by the attack as the unsuspecting Israeli population. The path towards peace between Jews and Palestinians depends on the humanization of the largely innocent peace-seeking population, most of whom object to the policies of their respective governments. While providing in-depth insight into the daily lives of innocent Palestinians, the book reveals the betrayal of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority--focused on their own power struggle--of the trust of innocent Palestinians. Another book, "The Gates of Gaza," similarly informs us of the betrayal of the trust of innocent Israelis by the Israeli government in general and Bibi Netanyahu in particular. These two books, Brian Barber's "No Way but Forward..." and Amir Tibon's "The Gates of Gaza..." together would make a powerful contribution to any high school or college course dedicated to furthering understanding of the toll of this conflict on the lives and aspirations of its innocent victims. These victims have the same aspirations for their children to thrive and live peacefully with their neighboring cousins--cousins with roots in the same ancient Canaanite gene pool; cousins with equal claims to a land they must find a way to share peacefully. Barber’s “No Way Forward: Life Stories of Three Families in the Gaza Strip” and Tibon’s “The Gates of Gaza: A Story of Betrayal, Survival, and Hope in Israel's Borderlands" have my highest recommendation for anyone seeking a sane, humanizing perspective from innocent victims living on both sides of the borders between Israel and occupied Palestinian territories.

[Jill Dobbe · Rating 5 out of 5]

The real and honest truth about living in Gaza during this inhumane war with Israel. The author details the day-to-day and hourly struggles of three Palestinian families as they try to survive the constant barrage of missiles raining down on their homes. The daily challenges for these families included a lack of food and water, electricity cuts, wage cuts, injuries, illnesses, and relocations. My heart went out to the men, their wives, and children as I read about the brutality they endured. Despite it all, they made sure their children didn't suffer and their education wasn't interrupted.

An absorbing read, but also difficult just knowing that the men and their families may not make it out of Gaza alive. The Palestinian death toll continues to be astronomical as the war wages on without any truce. Despite the violence, humiliation, and loss, these men continued to hope and pray for their country and its people. Everyone needs to read this book to fully understand the strength and courage of the Palestinian people.

[Annette · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book I have ever read about the people of Gaza, presenting them in their full humanity, not only as victims. Compassionate, profound, vivid portrayals concentrating on three young men and their famies from youth to middle-age. Recommended for anyone who cares about the future of the brave, beleaguered land of Palestine.

[Katie Higginbotham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Barber does a beautiful job of taking the reader into l unimaginable and foreign situations, while reminding them that every person has hopes and dreams, no culture should be overlooked or destroyed, and that we all yearn for peace.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible power in simply allowing these three families to tell their stories. Highly recommend to anyone who wants to better understand the current turmoil in Gaza.

[Stephen Heiner · Rating 5 out of 5]

video book review: https://youtu.be/3Lxy-X1gU3w