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No Turning Back: Life, Loss, and Hope in Wartime Syria
No Turning Back: Life, Loss, and Hope in Wartime Syria | Rania Abouzeid
8 posts | 4 read | 20 to read
This astonishing book by the prize-winning journalist Rania Abouzeid tells the tragedy of the Syrian War through the dramatic stories of four young people seeking safety and freedom in a shattered country. Extending back to the first demonstrations of 2011, No Turning Back dissects the tangle of ideologies and allegiances that make up the Syrian conflict. As protests ignited in Daraa, some citizens were brimming with a sense of possibility. A privileged young man named Suleiman posted videos of the protests online, full of hope for justice and democracy. A father of two named Mohammad, secretly radicalized and newly released from prison, saw a darker opportunity in the unrest. When violence broke out in Homs, a poet named Abu Azzam became an unlikely commander in a Free Syrian Army militia. The regimes brutal response disrupted a family in Idlib province, where a nine-year-old girl opened the door to a military raid that caused her father to flee. As the bombings increased and roads grew more dangerous, these peoples lives intertwined in unexpected ways. Rania Abouzeid brings readers deep inside Assads prisons, to covert meetings where foreign states and organizations manipulated the rebels, and to the highest levels of Islamic militancy and the formation of ISIS. Based on more than five years of clandestine reporting on the front lines, No Turning Back is an utterly engrossing human drama full of vivid, indelible characters that shows how hope can flourish even amid one of the twenty-first centurys greatest humanitarian disasters.
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Kobe83

Nyt notable book 2018

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review
DGRachel
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Pickpick

This is a pick for the subject matter alone, but I wish the writing had been more compelling. It‘s important and the people are still suffering. I‘m ashamed of my country‘s response to this crisis. We must do and be better. We. Must.

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DGRachel
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“...today I am convinced that Russia is more honorable and trustworthy than the United States”

This makes me ill. 😭😭

minkyb Ditto 6y
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DGRachel
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😔💔

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DGRachel
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Just a heads up for anyone considering reading this, in case I forget to mention is when I do my review, there are graphic accounts of torture in this book. The author has interviewed Syrians from the front lines of this civil war and has given detailed descriptions of the human rights abuses these people experienced. This is not an easy read/listen.

TrishB 😢😢 6y
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DGRachel
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“Syrians described their movement as an orphaned revolution...They asked why the mere threat of a massacre in Libya‘s rebel-held Benghazi rallied an international coalition, when in Syria, actual massacres didn‘t.”

The failure of the international community to act to aid the Syrian people is nothing short of criminal.

Aimeesue I want to read this, but wow, devastating. 6y
55 likes1 stack add1 comment
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DGRachel
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So far, the writing is textbook dry, so I am struggling to focus on the print. I grabbed the audiobook because the story is important. Narrated by the author, it‘s still a bit of a slog, but the details are heartbreaking.

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DGRachel
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“The United Nations abandoned trying to count Syria‘s casualties”

Just starting this book and already I‘m gutted.

minkyb My teeth are clenching just reading this passage. 6y
72 likes4 stack adds1 comment