“It is difficult to read Tareq Baconi’s intimate, mesmerizing meditation on dispossession and not think about how much safer it would have been to not write a book like this, to leave a dangerous past undisturbed. In stunning detail—both physical and emotional—Baconi traces a story of personal and communal alienation, longing, and liberation... That Baconi has managed to do all this in a memoir that still feels so firmly rooted in love is a marvel.”
—Omar El Akkad, New York Times bestselling author of One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
 
“Destined to become a classical Palestinian Anglophone literary text of our age.”
—George Abraham, Autostraddle

“Fire in Every Direction is a beautiful account of one man's confrontation with the histories, silences, and desires—both communal and private—that have made him who he is.”
—Isabella Hammad, author of Enter Ghost and Recognizing the Stranger
 
“Intimate and vulnerable, creating an unsparing portrait...for all the tragedies, however, it is ultimately a book filled with love, from and for his own family, for the region, Palestine and queer culture.”
—The Guardian
 
“I love this book. It is beautifully woven and registers acutely at the intimate and global levels of life.”
—Judith Butler, bestselling author of Who's Afraid of Gender
 
“Acclaimed scholar and analyst Baconi chronicles his coming of age as a young gay man and defiant Palestinian. A brilliant and wrenching tale of personal and political awakening.”
—Booklist (starred review)

“Tareq Baconi offers us a love letter, a blueprint on how to craft a life that questions the present, dreaming a better future in the process... Baconi has shown me that revolutions begin in the self; I am forever changed after reading this book.”
—Javier Zamora, author of Solito

“Lyrical and moving, Baconi's excellent memoir describes a people in real danger of being forgotten as well as a land where hope straddles walls.”
—Library Journal
 
“Luminous, moving, and achingly beautiful, every page of this book is guided by Tareq Baconi's fierce intelligence and a tenderness that this world does not deserve. You do not read this book to repair your heart, you read this book to understand the fissures.”
—Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King

“In this poignant autobiography, queer Palestinian writer and activist Baconi tenderly explores identity, nationality, and family history.”
—The Millions

“Outstanding...I found the blend between the personal and political to be very cleverly achieved. A brilliant book.”
—Raja Shehadeh, author of We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I

“A powerful memoir of queer and Palestinian reckoning. Tareq Baconi creates 'a gaze of our own' by bringing his open heart to a tough confrontation with histories both intimate and diasporic. An important contribution to our many literatures.”
—Sarah Schulman, author of The Fantasy and Necessity of Solidarity

“With lyrical prose and shrewd narrative instincts, Baconi transmutes hardship into comfort. Readers will find it difficult not to be moved.”
—Publishers Weekly

“With passion, sincerity, and wit, Baconi writes about the world he grew up in, about a time and place long gone, revivified in these beautiful pages. Spending time with the real people in Fire in Every Direction is a delight. Read this book!”
—Rabih Alameddine, author of Comforting Myths and An Unnecessary Woman
 
“Fire in Every Direction is primarily a love story: about how one learns to overcome loss—of a homeland, of a beloved—due to the interventions of authorities, be they parents or conquerors. It is a deeply inspiring and absorbing read, especially in these times.”
—Mark Gevisser, author of The Pink Line