Sky Beneath the Rubble

The Sky Beneath the Rubble
A Novel by Philip Stengel

Beneath the crushing weight of his collapsed home, a poet's only weapon is memory.

Trapped in an abyss of dust and darkness after a devastating bombing in Gaza, Nidal is suspended between life and death. Pinned by concrete and rebar, he battles not only unbearable pain and thirst, but also the ghosts of his past. Chief among them is Karim, the brother he lost two years ago a phantom who forces Nidal to confront the choices, regrets, and moments of beauty that defined their world before it turned to rubble.

For fans of the powerful storytelling of Khaled Hosseini and the lyrical prose of Colum McCann, The Sky Beneath the Rubble is an immersive, emotionally resonant work of literary fiction. Echoing the soul-stirring defiance of Mahmoud Darwish, this unforgettable historical drama explores war, trauma, cultural erasure, and the power of art as resistance.

As Nidal's body weakens, his mind drifts through vivid, hallucinatory memories of stolen figs in sunlit orchards, of love blooming beneath watchtowers, and of the fierce ideological divide that once separated him from the brother he now clings to for survival. This is more than a story of endurance; it is a meditation on the cost of memory, and a testament to the human spirit's refusal to be erased.

Will the stories that kept his people alive be enough to save him now?

⚠️ Content advisory: Contains depictions of violence, grief, and psychological distress.