A Woman in the Crossfire: Diaries of the Syrian Revolution [Paperback]

Samar Yazbek (Author), Max Weiss (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 28, 2012

A well-known novelist and journalist from the coastal city of Jableh, Samar Yazbek witnessed in person and actively participated in the first four months of the Syrian intifada. Throughout she kept a diary of personal reflections. Her outspoken views published in print, online, and on Facebook quickly attracted the attention and fury of the regime, as vicious rumors spread about her disloyalty to the homeland and the Alawite community from which she comes. This narrative weaves together her struggle to protect herself and her young daughter after she is forced to leave her home and live on the run, detained multiple times, and eventually flees to Europe.

Filled with exhilarating hope and horrifying atrocities, A Woman in the Crossfire offers us a wholly unique perspective on the Syrian uprising. Yazbek's is a modest yet powerful testament to the strength and commitment of countless unnamed Syrians who dream of bringing an end to a forty-year-old dictatorship. Their fight for their dignity will inspire all those who read this book and challenge the world to look anew at the trials and tribulations of the Syrian uprising.

Samar Yazbek has published several novels and collections of short stories, the most recent of which is In Her Mirrors. An excerpt of her novel Cinnamon was published in the anthology Beirut 39 (Bloomsbury, 2010) and will be published by Haus in 2013.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An essential eyewitness account, and with luck an inaugural document in a Syrian literature that is uncensored and unchained."—Kirkus Reviews

"She has the novelist's eye for telling detail…Hers is the urgent task of showing the world what is happening. Thanks to her, we can read about the appalling things that go on in secret, underground places."—The Guardian

"Her book is infused with a hauntingly poetic narrative style. Chilling, disturbing, but irresistibly compelling."—The Daily Star

"Four new books confront the [Syrian] revolution head-on…Of the four writers, Samar Yazbek provides the most arresting, novelistic prose…uncompromising reportage from a doomed capital."—The Spectator

"Impassioned and harrowing memoir of the early revolt…"—New York Review of Books

"The heartbreaking diary of…a Syrian who risked her life to document the regime's brutal attacks on peaceful demonstrators."—The Inquirer

"Its importance is in its existence, the effort of so many Syrians to share their stories and Yazbek's own courage and ability to record them."—The National

"It's heavy and horrible, like so much related to the war. But the book also reminds that Syria is—was—utterly beautiful."—CNN

'If you want to put a face on the Syrian revolution, try an activist named Samar Yazbek…she’s a walking refutation of the argument that the conflict in Syria is simply a sectarian civil war between Assad’s Alawites and the Sunni majority. —David Ignatius, Washington Post

About the Author

Born in 1970 in Kable, in the Alaouite region of Syria, Samar Yazbek studied literature before becoming a journalist and a script writer for Syrian and cinema. Her novels include Child of Heaven, Clay, Cinnamon (forthcoming from Haus, 2013), and In Her Mirrors.

Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Haus Publishing (August 28, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1908323124
• ISBN-13: 978-1908323125
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #164,157 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #14 in Books > History > Middle East > Syria

More About the Author

Born in 1970 in Jable, Syria, Samar Yazbek studied literature before beginning her career as a journalist and a script writer for Syrian television and cinema. She is a novelist, and the author of 'A woman in the crossfire' (Haus for English, Buchet-Chastel for French, Nagel & Kimche for German). Samar Yazbek now lives in France.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful Account of the First 100 Days of the Revolution December 15, 2012

By Pskovian

Format:Paperback

Samar Yazbek's A Woman in the Crossfire: Diaries of the Syrian Revolution is the book that elicits strong feelings. For me, those were the feelings of disbelief that fellow human beings can inflict such pain upon each other but also the feelings of hope in the human spirit and its resilience.

Yazbek's book documents the first 100 days of the Syrian Revolution, which began with demonstrations in March 2011. As the conflict, which initially followed a `traditional Arab Spring scenario' with demands for freedoms and cessation of corruption, escalated into a civil war along sectarian lines, Yazbek analyses how that sectarianism was fostered. She also explores the beginnings of the Syrian refugee problem. A relatively small number of refugees in the period, documented by Yazbek, turned into hundreds of thousands of refugees and a few millions of internally displaced persons. The book captures the period when the exodus began.

Yazbek, through hundreds of interviews conducted with opposition leaders, reconstructs the events in Dar'a (in the southwest, on the border with Jordan) and Baniyas (in the northwest, on the Mediterranean coast), the two towns where some of the worst atrocities by the Syrian regime were committed. Yazbek also explores the roles of the Syrian army, the security services, and the shabiha (civilian sectarian militia) in the revolution.

Yazbek provides a perspective on the conflict that should not be taken for granted. She is an Alawi, of the same ethnic group as the president, but was shunned by her community for her oppositional beliefs. She is a woman and a mother in the revolution that we associate with pictures of young men in their 20s. She is also an intellectual, a prominent public figure in Syria before the revolution, who was personally targeted and vilified by the regime through the state-controlled media.

Finally, apart from its powerful content, it is a beautifully written book. Yazbek's diary-style narration, occasionally slipping into an artistic stream of consciousness, conveys exactly what a good memoir should: how she felt at a specific moment in history. This makes her story more personal and relatable, as we follow the evolution not only of the tragic events in Syria but also of the protagonist's feelings about the conflict, her identity, and her country. Max Weiss should be thanked for a remarkable English translation.

The book will be invaluable to those studying Middle Eastern history and politics, concerned about human rights and humanitarian conflicts, or interested in learning more about the Syrian Revolution in the broader context of the Arab Spring.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars beware of poor editing or printing... March 12, 2013

By jeff wade

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

My copy had a dogleg about 150 pages in where it went back to page 88 for about 20 pages & I never got back the missing pages. Unfortunately, not a big loss. As others said, it gets pretty repetitive and bleak.

Nonetheless, she is a great writer and the repetition and bleakness was Assad's fault, as he truly did and still does horrible things to his people. Hopefully his end is soon and my copy was a fluke.

Regardless, more people should read this to know what really is happening there.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but redundant December 10, 2012

By DrDan

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

If one were to judge the book just on the courage of the writer, then it would rate five stars. However, despite some interesting details and some literary flourish, the book drags on after the first 80 pages or so. The stories become rather predictable, the actors identical, the circumstances consistent. It brings home the brutality of the Assad regime as it hangs onto power, but it isn't something that continues to hold interest over time...