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Home That Was Our Country: A Memoir of Syria
Home That Was Our Country: A Memoir of Syria | Alia Malek
15 posts | 6 read | 26 to read
At the Arab Spring's hopeful start, Alia Malek returned to Damascus to reclaim her grandmother's apartment, which had been lost to her family since Hafez al-Assad came to power in 1970. Its loss was central to her parent's decision to make their lives in America. In chronicling the people who lived in the Tahaan building, past and present, Alia portrays the Syrians-the Muslims, Christians, Jews, Armenians, and Kurds-who worked, loved, and suffered in close quarters, mirroring the political shifts in their country. Restoring her family's home as the country comes apart, she learns how to speak the coded language of oppression that exists in a dictatorship, while privately confronting her own fears about Syria's future. The Home That Was Our Country is a deeply researched, personal journey that shines a delicate but piercing light on Syrian history, society, and politics. Teeming with insights, the narrative weaves acute political analysis with a century of intimate family history, ultimately delivering an unforgettable portrait of the Syria that is being erased.
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Floresj
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Solid read. This was a tour of Syria's history via her family and it was interesting and informative. I learned a lot- specifically around Syrian culture and Pakistan. The author lived in Syria throughout the Arab Spring and learning about the collapse of Syria through her friends and family was well done. I think the book needed one more edit to condense some places, however.

Lacythebookworm I enjoyed this, too! I agree that some editing would have improved it. 7y
9 likes1 comment
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Lacythebookworm
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Malek's memoir of her family's life in Syria is well done. She brings a personal look to the Syrian Civil War. While it's a personal story, there is plenty of history and politics for those with an interest in in-depth historical insight.

Natasha.C.Barnes Hey, this could work well for #readaroundtheworld in October! 7y
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Lacythebookworm
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After dinner hammock time 😊

I had put this book down over the weekend and am ready to get back to it.

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prowlix
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This is the story of Malek's family from her great grandparents (1890s) up to ~2013 when the Syrian regime began the violence toward their own people. She uses her family history to introduce the bigger history of Syria and surrounding countries. And you can feel her love of country. And her frustration that the global community has ignored the violence in Syria. Highly recommend if wanting an intro to Middle East history/current event. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Gezemice This looks fascinating, thanks for the post! 7y
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prowlix
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The discussion of the regime starting to ramp up its violence toward the Syrian people keeps reminding me more and more of a book I finished earlier this year called The Queue (tagged in comments). It would make for an interesting companion read

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prowlix
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Their presence, and our imaginings of what unspeakable things were being committed inside, kept us actively threatened, and in line. But most insidiously, no matter how much we averted our gaze, the fact that we knew what was happening inside and yet went about our lives made us complicit.

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prowlix
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The arbitrariness was one of the myriad ways of controlling the society and exacting its submission.

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prowlix
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Loving this story of Syria as told through the timeline of the author's family. Makes me realize I know very little about the fall of the Ottoman Empire and all the resulting trauma to Arab countries. Does anyone have additional recommendations for nonfiction on the topic?

Nuwanda I'd love to read this and have a list of other books to check out too! 7y
prowlix @Nuwanda right now the only other book I have on my list is by another journalist but I would love to have more! 7y
Nuwanda @prowlix I will definitely look at the two! Thanks! 7y
k.reads No Knives in the Kitchens of this City was excellent! I can't recommend it highly enough. 7y
prowlix @k.reads Stacked! Thanks for the recommendation 7y
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prowlix
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prowlix
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#currentread - starting this next! It is long overdue for me to educate myself about Syria in detail. This author did an interview on the podcast Politically Reactive a few weeks ago and I finally tracked down her book. It is a unique perspective of modern Syria conflict from a Syrian American and not an outsider (non Arab). And her interview was great 😍

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JacquelynLovesYou
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JacquelynLovesYou
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It's been taking me forever to read this, but that's a reflection on my life right now, not the book, which is very good.

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JacquelynLovesYou
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I like this paragraph.

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JacquelynLovesYou
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Enjoying my lunch break outside...in the parking lot. 🌳🌳🌳🚗🚙🐦🐦🐦📖📖📖

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BookishMe
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To help me make sense of the chaos there

6 likes1 stack add