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NEW YORK — Omar El Akkad’s “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This,” a brief, searing indictment of American and European responses to the devastation in the Gaza Strip, has taken home the National Book Award in nonfiction, one of three prizes awarded to writers of Middle Eastern origin who addressed the traumatic past and present of the region in their books and in their remarks.

Omar El Akkad's "One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This," what publisher Knopf calls "a moral grappling" in which he considers the carnage in Gaza and the promises and realities of the West. (Courtesy/Knopf)

The awards have often served as a kind of counter voice to current events. The honorees Wednesday expressed gratitude for prizes bes

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