Memoir books from Syria
Recommended memoir books (11)
Travel the world without leaving your chair.
If you are into memoir here are some memoir books from Syria for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge.
1.
A Woman in the Crossfire : Diaries of the Syrian Revolution by Samar Yazbek EN
Description:
A well-known novelist and journalist from the coastal city of Jableh, Samar Yazbek witnessed the beginning four months of the uprising first-hand and actively participated in a variety of public actions and budding social movements. Throughout this period she kept a diary of personal reflections on, and observations of, this historic time. Because of the outspoken views she published in print and online, Yazbek quickly attracted the attention and fury of the regime, vicious rumours started to spread about her disloyalty to the homeland and the Alawite community to which she belongs. The lyrica... continue
2.
Butterfly : From Refugee to Olympian, My Story of Rescue, Hope and Triumph by Yusra Mardini EN
Description:
"Being a refugee is not a choice. Our choice is to die at home or risk death trying to escape." - Yusra MardiniYusra Mardini fled her native Syria to the Turkish coast in 2015 and boarded a small dinghy full of refugees bound for Greece. When the small and overcrowded boat's engine cut out, it began to sink. Yusra, her sister and two others took to the water, pushing the boat for three and a half hours in open water until they eventually landed on Lesbos, saving the lives of the passengers aboard. This is the story of that remarkable woman, whose journey started in a war-torn suburb of Damascu... continue
3.
Crooked Teeth: A Queer Syrian Refugee Memoir by Danny Ramadan EN
Description:
FINALIST FOR THE GOVERNER GENERAL'S LITERARY AWARD FOR NON-FICTION SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2025 EVERGREEN AWARD AN AUDIBLE BEST BOOK OF 2024 A queer Syrian refugee reckons with a life spent out of place. “Writing this memoir is a betrayal.” So begins this electrifying personal account from Danny Ramadan, a celebrated novelist who has long enjoyed the shield his fiction provides. Now, to tell the story of his life, he must revisit dark corners of his past he’d rather forget and unearth memories of a city he can no longer return to. Starting with his family’s humble beginnings in Damascus, he takes ... continue
4.
Growing Up bin Laden : Osama's Wife and Son Take Us Inside Their Secret World by Najwa bin Laden, Omar bin Laden, Jean Sasson EN
Description:
From the New York Times bestselling author of Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia In their own words, Osama bin Laden's wife and son tell the astonishing story of the man they knew—or thought they knew—before September 11, 2001. The world knows Osama bin Laden as the most wanted terrorist of our time. But people are not born terrorists, and bin Laden has carefully guarded the details of his private life—until now, when his first wife and fourth-born son break the silence to take us inside his strange and secret world. In spine-tingling detail, Jean Sasson tells their... continue
5.
Les portes du néant by Samar Yazbek FR
Description:
Figure de l'opposition au régime de Bachar al-Assad, Samar Yazbek a dû quitter son pays tant aimé en juin 2011. Depuis son exil, elle ressent l'urgence de témoigner. Au mépris du danger, elle est retournée trois fois dans son pays, clandestinement, où elle a connu de l'intérieur l'horreur de la guerre civile, aux côtés des activistes. Des premières manifestations pacifiques pour la démocratie jusqu'à l'émergence de l'Etat islamique, elle décrit le quotidien des combattants, des enfants, des hommes et des femmes ordinaire qui luttent pour survivre à l'une des plus grandes tragédies du XXIe sièc... continue
6.
My Road from Damascus by Jamal Saeed EN
Description:
Humorous, witty, horrific, and poetic, Jamal Saeed's story is Syria's story: surviving 12 years in brutal military prisons, an enchanted childhood, his loves, Syria's deadly upheavals, and his family's escape.
7.
Sharon and My Mother-in-law : Ramallah Diaries by Suad Amiry EN
Description:
Based on diaries and e-mail correspondence that Amiry kept to maintain her sanity in the Occupied Territories from 1981 to 2004, this series of vignettes describes the frustrations, cabin fever, and downright misery of daily life in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
8.
The Arab of the Future : Volume 1: a Childhood in the Middle East, 1978-1984 - a Graphic Memoir by Riad Sattouf EN
Description:
VOLUME 1 IN THE UNFORGETTABLE STORY OF AN EXTRAORDINARY CHILDHOOD The Arab of the Future tells the unforgettable story of Riad Sattouf's childhood, spent in the shadows of three dictators - Muammar Gaddafi, Hafez al-Assad, and his father. A GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR | AN OBSERVER GRAPHIC BOOK OF THE YEAR | A NEW YORK TIMES CRITICS' TOP BOOK OF THE YEAR 'I tore through it... The most enjoyable graphic novel I've read in a while' Zadie Smith 'I joyously recommend this book to you' Mark Haddon 'Riad Sattouf is one of the great creators of our time' Alain De Botton 'Beautifully-written and drawn, ... continue
9.
The Pianist of Yarmouk by Aeham Ahmad EN
Description:
'Ahmad has created a moving and visceral account of conflict, hope and the power of music' Hannah Beckerman, Observer The incredible and inspirational true story of one young man's struggle to find peace during war, and the power of music to bring hope to a desperate nation. ____________ One morning in war-torn Damascus, a starving man drags a piano into a rubbled street. Everything he once knew has been destroyed by war. Amidst ruin and despair, he begins to play. He plays of love and hope, he plays for his family and his fellow Syrians. He plays even though he could be killed for doing so. A... continue
10.
The Shell : Memoirs of a Hidden Observer by Moustafa Khalifa EN
Description:
The work of a moder-day Sozhenitsyn that exposes acts of violence and brutality committed by the Syrian regime. This compelling first novel is the astonishing story of a Syrian political prisoner of conscience—an atheist mistaken for a radical Islamist—who was locked up for 13 years without trial in one of the most notorious prisons in the Middle East. The novel takes the form of a diary which Musa keeps in his head and then writes down upon his release. In Tadmur prison, the mood is naturally bleak and yet often very beautifully captured. The narrator, a young graduate, is defiant and stoical... continue