This article was written by Heba Saleh for the Financial Times. Only a few excerpts are featured below. For the full article, please refer to the Financial Times‘ website. Published on October 6th 2015.
Photo credit: The Guardian, Sedat Suna
As the Arab world grapples with unrest across many of its countries, the Arab novel, a form that has undergone something of a revival in recent years, has found inspiration in the region’s political cataclysms. A powerful style of fiction has emerged that probes subjects relating to freedom, violence, identity, religion and the failure …

A review by by Rehana Rossouw, for Business Day, published September 25, 2015
Photo credit: Muhsin Akgun
IN SYRIA millions of people’s lives, homes and livelihoods have been destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of abject refugees are streaming out to neighbouring countries and Europe. Since the start of the war in 2011 more than 250,000 Syrians have died — inside the country and on their way out — as Aylan Kurdi’s body on a beach will forever testify.
Samar Yazbek travels in the opposite direction, crawling under the barbed wire on the border with Turkey, …

Lydia Wilson, for The Times Literary Supplement, published on the 23rd of September 2015.
An excerpt is featured below.
 
Well into its fifth year, the conflict in Syria only seems to worsen every day, the news impossible to foresee from one month to the next, with warnings from the UN, NGOs and charities growing ever more desperate. And all the while the feelings of helplessness grow. What can we do? Or, increasingly, what should we have done? Would early intervention have been the better option, stopping, or at least slowing, the carnage, …

This collection of texts was commissioned and published by The Guardian, on September 12th 2015. Photo credit: Ed Alcock, MYOP Diffusion, The Guardian,
The refugee crisis, though long in the news, has suddenly captured the world’s attention. But what are the underlying causes, and what should individuals and governments do to help? Samar Yazbek responded (below) – along with Orhan Pamuk, Arundhati Roy, Elif Shafak, Ahdaf Soueif, Pankaj Mishra,

By Barry Andrews, for Irish Times, August 2, 2015
Barry Andrews of Goal salutes an eloquent, gripping and harrowing account by an incredibly brave Syrian of her country’s decline into barbarism.
The war in Syria is in its fifth year and it is estimated that 230,000 people have died in the conflict. This book is an eloquent, gripping and harrowing account of the country’s decline into barbarism by an incredibly brave Syrian.

Review by The Press & Journal, July 29th, 2015
The Crossing documents [Yazbek’s] three return visits to Syria between 2012 and 2013. This was a period during which the Syrian people were desperately fighting for survival, both against the Assad regime and the brutal and unforgiving force of emerging Jihadist groups.