When a writer from Syria became a spokesperson for Gaza survivors
By Jean-Pierre Filiu
Samar Yazbek is one of the most prominent figures of Arabic literature today. His work, which began at the beginning of this century in Syria during the reign of Bashar Al-Assad, found new life with the popular uprising against a hereditary dictatorship. Samar Yazbek’s documents come in Gunfight (Buchet-Castel, 2012) the first months of the Syrian revolution which aimed to be pacifist and inclusive. His Gate of Nothingness (Stock, 2016), on the other hand, is a clear reflection of the misdirection of this revolution, where the militias made excessive offers that benefited the regime and the jihadists. But Samar Yazbek did not abandon fiction and published two fascinating novels, one set in one of the suburbs of the rebel city of Damascus (PedestrianStock, 2018), another on Mount Alawi (Wind HouseStock, 2023), which is mistakenly considered a bastion of dictatorship.
