A Woman in the Crossfire
Diaries of the Syrian Revolution
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- $22.99
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- $22.99
Publisher Description
A well-known novelist and journalist from the coastal city of Jableh, Samar Yazbek witnessed the beginning four months of the uprising first-hand and actively participated in a variety of public actions and budding social movements. Throughout this period she kept a diary of personal reflections on, and observations of, this historic time. Because of the outspoken views she published in print and online, Yazbek quickly attracted the attention and fury of the regime, vicious rumours started to spread about her disloyalty to the homeland and the Alawite community to which she belongs. The lyrical narrative describes her struggle to protect herself and her young daughter, even as her activism propels her into a horrifying labyrinth of insecurity after she is forced into living on the run and detained multiple times, excluded from the Alawite community and renounced by her family, her hometown and even her childhood friends. With rare empathy and journalistic prowess Samar Yazbek compiled oral testimonies from ordinary Syrians all over the country. Filled with snapshots of exhilarating hope and horrifying atrocities, she offers us a wholly unique perspective on the Syrian uprising. Hers is a modest yet powerful testament to the strength and commitment of countless unnamed Syrians who have united to fight for their freedom. These diaries will inspire all those who read them, and challenge the world to look anew at the trials and tribulations of the Syrian uprising.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Amid the horrific news about Syrian dissidents, mass killings, and government claims of terrorists, this unique document, written in the first months of the uprising, is a chronicle both of objective events and the visceral and psychic responses of an impassioned activist and artist. Yazbek, a writer, documentarian, and member of the ruling Alawite clan, had already sacrificed her privileged position through provocative acts even before the revolution began on March 15, 2011. The diaries, which begin on March 25, document her experience through the early months of the uprising as she participates in and observes the first demonstrations, goes into hiding in an apartment in downtown Damascus, defies her interrogators and witnesses torture in a secret prison, interviews activists, soldiers, and eyewitnesses to slaughter, and prepares to leave Syria to protect her daughter and "communicate to the world what's happening here." The book weaves journalistic reporting with intimate, poetic musings on an appalling reality. As she writes: "Death is a mobile creature that now walks on two legs.... I am the crime of treason against my society and my sect, but I am no longer afraid."