Roundabout of Death
Faysal Khartash
Jan 2022 · Bloomsbury Publishing
Ebook
176
Pages
About this ebook
A powerful and beautiful Syrian novel set in Aleppo during the early days of the civil war that followed the Arab Spring.
'Beautiful... brings to a wider audience one of the best Syrian novelists of his generation' TLS
'A sublime distillation of one of the tragedies of the early twenty-first century' Independent
'Masterful... Kaleidoscopic: personal and collective, serendipitous and fatalistic' Los Angeles Times
Jumaa is a schoolteacher in Aleppo. He observes and lives through the literal disintegration of his beautiful native city. Through his eyes, in a mixture of first and third person narration, we experience the razing of entire neighbourhoods, the apparently random dropping of barrel bombs, the bewildering variety of militias and government security forces loyal to Assad, the arbitrary cruelties and the complicated journeys that people have to make simply to cross the city.
Roundabout of Death offers powerful witness to the violence that obliterated the ancient city's rich layers of history, its neighbourhoods and medieval and Ottoman landmarks. Aleppo was home to Arabs, Armenians, Kurds, Christians and other sects. The war tore those communities apart and made their city a wasteland.
'Beautiful... brings to a wider audience one of the best Syrian novelists of his generation' TLS
'A sublime distillation of one of the tragedies of the early twenty-first century' Independent
'Masterful... Kaleidoscopic: personal and collective, serendipitous and fatalistic' Los Angeles Times
Jumaa is a schoolteacher in Aleppo. He observes and lives through the literal disintegration of his beautiful native city. Through his eyes, in a mixture of first and third person narration, we experience the razing of entire neighbourhoods, the apparently random dropping of barrel bombs, the bewildering variety of militias and government security forces loyal to Assad, the arbitrary cruelties and the complicated journeys that people have to make simply to cross the city.
Roundabout of Death offers powerful witness to the violence that obliterated the ancient city's rich layers of history, its neighbourhoods and medieval and Ottoman landmarks. Aleppo was home to Arabs, Armenians, Kurds, Christians and other sects. The war tore those communities apart and made their city a wasteland.
About the author
Faysal Khartash is a leading Syrian author. He lives in his native Aleppo, has written several novels and works as a schoolteacher while contributing to Syrian newspapers.
Max Weiss teaches the history of the modern Middle East at Princeton University. He has translated books by Nihad Sirees, Dunya Mikhail and Samar Yazbek.
Max Weiss teaches the history of the modern Middle East at Princeton University. He has translated books by Nihad Sirees, Dunya Mikhail and Samar Yazbek.
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