After our interview, she asked in Arabic to hear the story of our interpreter, who, like Yazbek, has witnessed the Syrian conflict with her own eyes.

I spotted Yazbek, who was waiting outside with a cigarette, under a floppy black hat. This interview took place in May 2016 in a café in Paris. The result is The Crossing: My Journey to the Shattered Heart of Syria, which has been called one of the first political classics of the twenty-first century. It wasn’t until 2014, after struggling to process the brutality she’d witnessed, that she was able to put it to paper. The voices of these men and women, who are fighting for their freedom and lives every day under the attacks from the regime and radical occupation, would not have been heard without Yazbek’s efforts to collect them. Interviewing the locals in the heart of the most ravaged areas of Syria, Yazbek was compelled to gather the people’s stories, from mothers of martyrs to secular fighters. She made the perilous crossing into Syria from the Turkish border three times, until 2013, which marked the last time she saw her country. Fearing for her safety as a journalist, Yazbek fled to Paris, where she’s lived in exile ever since. Read more witness to those struggling to survive, to the humanity that can flower amidst annihilation, and why so many are now desperate to flee.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:ġ6 WLT NOVEMBER–DECEMBER 2016 photo : jean luc bertini / pasco and co Q&A WORLDLIT.ORG 17 I n March 2011, after peaceful protests began to emerge across Syria, pushing for government reform, Samar Yazbek witnessed what was a passive, civil uprising become an unthinkable war. From the first peaceful protests for democracy to the arrival of ISIS, she bears. The Crossing is her rare, powerful and courageous testament to what she found inside the borders of her homeland. When the uprising in Syria turned to bloodshed, she was determined to take action and secretly returned several times. I WAS GREATLY MOVED' Michael Palin FOREWORD BY CHRISTINA LAMB Journalist Samar Yazbek was forced into exile by Assad's regime.

'ONE OF THE FIRST POLITICAL CLASSICS OF THE 21st CENTURY'- Observer 'EXTRAORDINARILY POWERFUL, POIGNANT AND AFFECTING. Category: (G) General (US: Trade) (P) Professional & Vocational (U) Tertiary Education (US: College). BIC Classification: 1FBS 3JMG BM HBJF1 JFFE JPVH. Translator(s): Gowanlock, Nashwa Kemp, Ruth Ahmedzai. From the first peaceful protests for democracy to the arrival of ISIS, this is her powerful and courageous testament to what she found inside the borders of her homeland. The author was forced into exile by Assad's regime. Description for The Crossing: My Journey to the Shattered Heart of Syria Paperback.

The Crossing by Samar Yazbek