With this poignant story, Yazbek writes about the magnificence and the cruelty of life, the destruction of worldly beauty and kindness,  but also its resilience, and the elevation of the soul. Here, Yazbek goes back to one of her favorite topics: the transformation of the underprivileged rural communities of Syria, but also their unique relationship to nature and its elements.

Hisham Al Khattab is Yazid ibn Abih. At least he thinks he is. Some 13 centuries separate the two, but in the despaired mind of Hisham Al Khattab, and through the magical power of dreams, Hisham is Yazid. 

The narrator, a zoo keeper, his girlfriend Nonna, and the giraffe (by far the zoo’s most popular figure), form a strange, yet happy family. This is their story, unfolding in the margins of the brutal Syrian war. Until violence can no longer be escaped.

Depicted as a story of curiosity and lust in the German press, Selamlik, autobiographic novel, tells the journey of Furat from his home in Syria, to Sweden, via Turkey. A surprising bitter-sweet homo-erotic tale.

 Can you be a hero on Twitter? This book’s main protagonist, Rami, wonders. He, for one, would love to be one a hero of some sort. And as the novel opens, with Rami discovering his face tagged all over the walls of Tahrir square, it appears Rami finally has his chance.