Syria

Damascus Nights

“In the classical Arab tradition of tale-telling, here is a magical book that celebrates the power of storytelling, delightfully transformed for modern sensibilities by an award-winning author.

The time is present-day Damascus, and Salim the coachman, the city's most famous storyteller, is mysteriously struck dumb. To break the spell, seven friends gather for seven nights to present Salim with seven wondrous ‘gifts’—seven stories of their own design.

Upon this enchanting frame of tales told in the fragrant Arabian night, the words of the past grow fainter, as ancient customs are yielding to modern turmoil. While the hairdresser, the teacher, the wife of the locksmith sip their tea and pass the water pipe, they swap stories about the magical and the mundane: about djinnis and princesses, about contemporary politics and the difficulties of bargaining in a New York department store. And as one tale leads to another... and another... all of Damascus appears before your eyes, along with a vision of storytelling-and talk-as the essence of friendship, of community, of life.

A sly and graceful work, a delight to readers young and old, Damascus Nights is ‘a highly atmospheric, pungent narrative’ (Publishers Weekly) while also being ‘enlightening, endearing, witty, and wise’ (Library Journal).”

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Impossible Revolution

Bloomberg's Best Books of 2017

“Yassin al-Haj Saleh is widely regarded as Syria’s foremost thinker and the intellectual authority of the Syrian uprising. Born in Raqqa, he spent sixteen years as a political prisoner in Syria (1980–1996) and has been living in exile in Turkey since 2013.

This first book in English by Saleh describes with precision and fervor the events that led to the Syrian uprising of 2011―the metamorphosis of the popular revolution into a regional war and the ‘three monsters’ Saleh sees ‘treading on Syria’s corpse:’ the Assad regime and its allies, ISIS and other jihadists, and the West. Where conventional wisdom has it that Assad’s army is now battling against religious fanatics for control of the country, Saleh argues that the emancipatory, democratic mass movement that ignited the revolution still exists, though it is beset on all sides.

Saleh offers incisive critiques of the impact of the revolution and war on Syrian governance, identity, and society to produce a powerful and compelling response to the traumas that define the contemporary Syrian experience. All those concerned with the conflict should take note.”

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My Country

“Kassem Eid survived arrest in al-Assad's regime, a chemical weapons attack that shocked the world, and the siege of a city where he fought with the Syrian rebel army. This is his story—a unique and powerfully moving testimony for our times, with a foreword by Janine di Giovanni.

On August 21, 2013, Kassem Eid nearly died in a sarin gas attack in the town of Moadamiya. At least 1,500 people were killed. Later that day, he was hit by a mortar while helping the Free Syrian Army fight government forces. He survived that, too. But his entire world-friends, neighbors, family, everything he knew-had been devastated beyond repair.

Eid recalls moving to Moadamiya in 1989, at the age of three. The streets where he and his eleven siblings played were fragrant with jasmine. But he soon realized that he was treated differently at school because of his parent's Palestinian immigrant origins, and their resistance to the brutal regime. When Bashar al-Assad succeeded his father in 2000, hopes that he would ease the state's severity were swiftly crushed.

The unprecedented scope of this brave, deeply felt memoir makes it unique in the body of literature to emerge from the Syrian civil war. Eid illuminates the realities of growing up in a corrupt dictatorship; the strictures of living under siege; the impact of unspeakable violence; and how, at extraordinary personal risk, he drew worldwide attention to the assault on cities across Syria. This is a searing account of oppression, war, grit, and escape, and a heartbreaking love letter to a world lost forever.”

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No Knives in the Kitchens of This City

Critcally acclaimed and winner of the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature

“In the once beautiful city of Aleppo, one Syrian family descends into tragedy and ruin.

Irrepressible Sawsan flirts with militias, the ruling party, and finally religion, seeking but never finding salvation. She and her siblings and mother are slowly choked in violence and decay, as their lives are plundered by a brutal regime.

Set between the 1960s and 2000s, No Knives in the Kitchens of this City unravels the systems of fear and control under Assad. With eloquence and startling honesty, it speaks of the persecution of a whole society.”

“Khaled Khalifa writes about his native city with sensuality and an almost feral intensity. No Knives in the Kitchens of This City offers a glimpse into how terrified and empty of hope the people of a city must be to rise up in revolt. The future offers them nothing. It is a castle of closed doors…the sights, smells and horror of living in Aleppo come pounding to life in this book. The place, to me, is no longer an abstraction, and Mr. Khalifa clearly fears for its fate throughout.” - The NY Times

“Intricately plotted, chronologically complicated and a pleasure to read. The writing is superb—a dense, luxurious realism pricked with surprising metaphors. It is lyrical, sensuous and so semantically rich that at times it resembles a prose poem…A sad but beautiful book, providing important human context to the escalating Syrian tragedy.” -- The Guardian

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Death is Hard Work

“A finalist for the National Book Awards in translated literature & shortlisted for the Saif Shobash Banipal prize

Abdel Latif, an old man, dies peacefully in a hospital bed in Damascus. Before he dies, he tells his youngest son Bolbol that his final wish is to be buried in the family plot in their ancestral village of Anabiya in the Aleppo region. Though Abdel Latif was not the ideal father, and though Bolbol is estranged from his siblings, he decides to persuade his older brother Hussein and his sister Fatima to accompany him and their father's body to Anabiya—only a two-hour drive from Damascus.

But the country is a warzone, with the landscape of their childhood now a labyrinth of competing armies, whose actions are at once arbitrary and lethal, the siblings' decision to set aside their differences and honour their father's request quickly escalates from a dutiful commitment into an epic and life-threatening quest. Syria is no longer any place for heroes, and the trials that confront the family along their journey—while they are captured and recaptured, interrogated, imprisoned, and bombed—will prove to have enormous consequences for them all.

A mixture of brutal, front-line reportage and surreal humor evocative of Beckett and Kafka, Death is Hard Work is an unforgettable journey into a contemporary heart of darkness.”

(A special thank you to book club member, Julie Jacobs for the group read suggestion.)

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Cinnamon

“Late at night, Hanan sees a ray of light under her husband’s bedroom door. She opens the door to her old husband in bed with her beloved maid Alia. Blinded by rage, Hanan throws Alia out in the middle of the night. She watches Alia walk away, hoping she will turn back, and bitterly regrets having pushed her lover away.

Alia, who hasn’t turned 20 yet, has been Hanan’s maid for over eight years. She hasn’t heard from her family since her father brought her to the villa, in exchange for some money. Leaving home, she thought, would help her mother, brothers and sisters out. They all lived in a single room in the ghetto under the tyranny of her brutal father.

Life is not worth much in the ghetto, especially that of little girls. This is how Alia grew up to be so fierce. She was eight years old, and would carry a knife. But even that didn’t prevent her from being raped by the garbage collection leader. At least she got her revenge. She scratched his face with her knife, and didn’t let herself die of shame, like her old paralyzed sister, who had been repeatedly raped by their neighbor in that same tin room she couldn’t leave.

Alia walks away from the villa, with nowhere to go. She didn’t love Hanan, but felt safe in the golden cage. Being Hanan’s lover was an easy game she played in exchange of a little comfort. She heads towards the ghetto, fearing her father, recalling the misery she thought she had left behind, holding her little knife tight as she feels unsafe again.

As Hanan watches her leave, she remembers her own despair of a different kind. That of a lonely wealthy woman, married to a quiet, disgusting cousin against her will. Hanan’s life may be smooth, but it’s desperately empty. The two women’s encounter was unlikely anywhere else except in the villa, where Alia was the maid during the day, and a lover at night. Two tormented women who brought comfort to each other, and yet still engaged in a relationship of power and control over each other.”

(Group read suggestion from Mia DeGiovine Chaveco, book club co-founder.)

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The Crossing

International winner of the PEN Pinter Prize

“An eloquent, gripping and harrowing account of the country’s decline into barbarism by an incredibly brave Syrian.” - Irish Times

“Samar Yazbek's searing new book about her Syrian homeland is a testament to the indomitable spirit of her countrymen in their struggle against the Assad regime. . . shocking, searing, and beautiful.” - Daily Beast

“Journalist Samar Yazbek was forced into exile by Assad's regime. When the uprising in Syria turned to bloodshed, she was determined to take action and secretly returned several times. The Crossing is her rare, powerful and courageous testament to what she found inside the borders of her homeland.

From the first peaceful protests for democracy to the arrival of ISIS, she bears witness to those struggling to survive, to the humanity that can flower amidst annihilation, and why so many are now desperate to flee.”

“One of the first political classics of the 21st century.” - Observer

“Extraordinarily powerful, poignant, and affecting. I was greatly moved.” - Michael Palin

(Group read suggestion from Beth McCrea, book club co-founder.)

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The Pianist from Syria (aka The Pianist of Yarmouk)

“‘Ahmad has created a moving and visceral account of conflict, hope and the power of music' - Observer

The inspirational true story of one young man's struggle to find peace during war, and the power of music to bring hope to a desperate nation.

One morning in war-torn Damascus, a starving man drags a piano into a rubbled street. Everything he once knew has been destroyed by war.

Amidst ruin and despair, he begins to play. He plays of love and hope, he plays for his family and his fellow Syrians. He plays even though he could be killed for doing so.

As word of his defiance spreads around the world, he becomes a beacon of hope and even resistance. Yet he fears for his wife and children—the more he plays, the more he and his family are endangered until, finally, he must make a terrible choice . . .

Aeham Ahmad's spellbinding and uplifting true story tells of the triumph of love and hope, the incredible bonds of family, and the healing power of music in even the very darkest of places.

'In amongst the wreckage scenes of hope. An amazing man - Ahmad played the piano just to spread love' Jeremy Vine, BBC Radio 2

'The music of Aeham Ahmad became a symbol of resistance' Today, BBC Radio 4”

(A special thank you to book club member, Beth Cummings for the group read suggestion.)

Note: If you’re looking for the paperback in Amazon US, it appears as if it is available under a different link & a slightly different title so if you want the paperback version or are having an issue seeing the paperback version that’s available now, use this link: https://amzn.to/2vpZfKk.

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Syrian Folktales

“This delightful book relates folktales from the fourteen muhafazah (i.e., governorates or provinces) of Syria. Each folktale is located on a regional map and is accompanied by a local, related recipe that’s easy to follow.“ Also woven into the book are folk sayings, Syrian history, songs, riddles, and hadith (i.e., the words and teachings from the Prophet Muhammad which serve as the second primary source of Islamic teachings). The author also includes a glossary of Syrian terms for reference.

Thoughtfully written, Syrian Folktales is a culturally-relevant and unique counterpoint to all the negativity heard about Syria presenting a view of the country that isn't political or war torn. This slim volume provides a rich look into Syrian culture and is a wonderful read for all ages.

(Group read suggestion from Mia DeGiovine Chaveco, book club co-founder.)

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Syria Speaks

“An English Pen Award winner, this anthology forms a rich, creatively diverse motif sublimely representative of a country and its people awash in strife and insurgency.” - Kirkus

“In Syria, culture has become a critical line of defence against tyranny. Syria Speaks is a celebration of a people determined to reclaim their dignity, freedom and self-expression. It showcases the work of over fifty artists and writers who are challenging the culture of violence in Syria.

Their literature, poems and songs, cartoons, political posters and photographs document and interpret the momentous changes that have shifted the frame of reality so drastically in Syria. Moving and inspiring, Syria Speaks is testament to the courage, creativity and imagination of the Syrian people.

“Syria Speaks is a remarkable achievement and a remarkable book—a wise, courageous, imaginative and beautiful response to all that is ugly in human behaviour. This extraordinary anthology gives a voice to those we may have forgotten, or whom we may classify as simply passive and silent victims. The people shown living, dreaming and speaking here are far more than victims and only silent if we refuse to hear them.'“ - A.L. Kennedy

“An extraordinary collection, revealing a dynamic and exciting culture in painful transition—a culture where artists are really making a difference ... You need to read this book.” - Brian Eno

(Group read suggestion from Beth McCrea, book club co-founder.)

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