The Difference between Bullets and Stones

Palestine in Words and Images

Published by Olive Branch Press
Distributed by Simon & Schuster

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About The Book

A stunning, heartfelt, and inspiring collection of photographs, poems, and stories capturing the spirit and resilience of a people.

The Difference between Bullets and Stones is a collaboration between Pulitzer Prize-winning Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha and award-winning American photographer Michael Christopher Brown, with foreword by acclaimed photographer and activist Misan Harriman. The book unites Mosab’s poems from Gaza with Michael’s photographs from the West Bank and Jerusalem, illuminating the grief, resilience, and vitality of Palestinian life: “Those living through siege, dispossession, and the weight of generational memory,” says Mosab Abu Toha. “The book humanizes lives too often reduced to headlines, illuminating the deeper emotional and spiritual story of a people who continue to survive, create, and dream of freedom.”

At its core, the book seeks not to shock, but to invite recognition: here are people, their routines, their grief, their courage. “It is not straight journalism,” says Michael Christopher Brown, “but neither is it pure poetry. It is a hybrid, where images and words together share human truths.” With Mosab Abu Toha’s poems and close to two hundred photographs, The Difference between Bullets and Stones is a fitting tribute to Palestinian resistance and the people’s quest for freedom.

About The Author

Mosab Abu Toha is a Palestinian poet, short-story writer, and essayist from Gaza. His first collection of poetry, Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry and won the Palestine Book Award, the American Book Award, and the Walcott Poetry Prize. His second collection, Forest of Noise, was a New York Times Notable Book, a New Yorker Best Book & Essential Read of 2024, and a Library Journal Best Book of Poetry. Abu Toha is also the founder of the Edward Said Library in Gaza, which he hopes to rebuild. He recently won an Overseas Press Club Award, a James Beard Award, and a Pulitzer Prize in Commentary for his essays on Gaza in The New Yorker.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Olive Branch Press (September 22, 2026)
  • Length: 256 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781623715311

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