Blurb Bit :
Salama Kassab was a pharmacy student when the cries for freedom broke out in Syria. She still had her parents and her big brother; she still had her home. She had a normal teenager’s life.
Now Salama volunteers at a hospital in Homs, helping the wounded who flood through the doors daily. Secretly, though, she is desperate to find a way out of her beloved country before her sister-in-law, Layla, gives birth. So desperate, that she has manifested a physical embodiment of her fear in the form of her imagined companion, Khawf, who haunts her every move in an effort to keep her safe.
But even with Khawf pressing her to leave, Salama is torn between her loyalty to her country and her conviction to survive. Salama must contend with bullets and bombs, military assaults, and her shifting sense of morality before she might finally breathe free. And when she crosses paths with the boy she was supposed to meet one fateful day, she starts to doubt her resolve in leaving home at all.
Soon, Salama must learn to see the events around her for what they truly are—not a war, but a revolution—and decide how she, too, will cry for Syria’s freedom.
My Thoughts :
You and I have never been in the same room before. We’ve never been on the same page before. We’ve never met but, when my dearest friend said read this I did because she knows me. We’re on the same page, always. And wow, nice to meet you my new friend, Zoulfa.
I type this with blurry eyes filled with tears. You wrote a mammoth of a book. I was caught in the after effects of a book slump storm and now I think I will be experiencing book hangover. So thanks for that and my colleagues now all know about your book cause hangover is in full effect.
I found myself in Syria. A country who for over 10 years has been fighting for freedom. I live in a country that has had that fight. I think we may always be building towards or fighting for something here. It’s painful. More than that it’s fatal. It’s the kind of fight that is unforgettable and leaves you either dead or forever engraved, marked by the tragedy of despair. Marked by everything and everyone you’ve lost.
Salama and Kenan lost too much. Too many loved ones too many friends too many imagined dreams. Along with millions of Syrians they lost the life they deserved to live. The one where every choice was theirs, every action, decision right or wrong was theirs to make. Theirs to make on the land that raised them.
Every chapter I read either broke my heart or mended it. Human beings are so resilient. I was both inspired and filled with melancholy. There were moments Salama could have just given up but she chose to look for the colour in the world – all the shades of blue. Even caught between a bomb and a gun barrel, smoke billowing she remembered his face, his smile, the way he always smells like lemons and always feels like home and that would pull her right out of the dark.
As much as their foundation is in Syria. As much as their very identity is Syria and as much as their loved ones lay forever trapped beneath the debris they need to make a decision for themselves and Kenan’s siblings. Do they stay and fight or do they fight for a future? A future where Salama becomes a pharmacists or a surgeon and Kenan becomes an illustrator and they create a children’s book together of wild fantasy. A future where little Lama and Yusuf get future’s and school and kid things not trauma, shrapnel and broken limbs. Even if that future includes a hike on a boat in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, they need to make a decision.
What would you do?
Currently, over 6.2 million Syrians are internally displaced and 5.6 million are refugees scattered around Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey. I pray one day every human being gets the life they pray for in the land of their choosing.
I think I will just sit here and take a moment to count my blessings.
Love, Cece xx
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