Interview and forward by Nada Ghosn, for The Markaz Review, November 9, 2020
In the cities or in the countryside, in the first year, women were symbols, the showcase of the revolution. But they were symbolically murdered by their comrades. They were the targets of the regime, of the revolutionaries, as well as of the militias that oppressed them politically. With the war, the tensions within Syrian identity since the country’s independence exploded. Our identity became fragmented. Intellectuals proved to be communitarian and separatist as well. Revolutionaries have not been less …

Do you love books that surprise you? I do. I had such a rush reading The Frightened Ones translated from the Arabic. The same kind when I read Bunny by Mona Awad—dark, trippy novel about MFA students and decapitated rabbit heads—and Supper Club by Lara Williams—women indulging in food, gluttony and sex.

As it presented several books worthy of attention, the Irish times (June 26, 2020) specified, regarding Dima Wannous’ “The Frightened ones”:
“Mention of a novel set in Syria might suggests a story mired in violence and suffering, but in ‘The Frightened Ones’ by Dima Wannous, translated by Elisabeth Jacquette (Harvilll Secker, 242pp, £12.99) the emphasis is on the anguish of Suleima,

As Khalifa’s “Death is hard work” was a finalist of  the Premio Gregor Von rezzori award 2020, his previous novel “There are no knives in the kitchens of the city” gains attention in German speaking territory, and was featured in a dedicated 4 minutes film on 3 Sat TV!

Il Manifesto, May, 2020
In an interview to Il Manifesto, Hoda Barakat, first woman to win the prestigious International Prize for Arabic fiction 2019 (or Arab Booker) shares:

“This is the story of a noble people, rooted in the plains of civilization and the park of history”